Disturbing...

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India Sex Imbalance Grows as Rich, Poor Want Boys

Mon December 9, 2002 01:39 PM ET

By Penny MacRae

 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Workers cleaning drains in a northern Indian town recently discovered two aborted female fetuses, a find that highlights the country's bias against girls.

 

A few weeks later, a bag turned up in the same town of Alwar in Rajasthan state containing a dozen female fetuses and dead baby girls police believe was dumped by a nursing home.

 

The discoveries were stark evidence of the preference for boys over girls among many parents that has skewed the sex ratio in this country of more than a billion and been exploited by money-hungry doctors using ultrasound machines to detect the sex of fetuses.

 

"It's an unholy alliance of tradition and technology. Ultrasound was not meant for sex selection," said demographer Ashish Bose. "It's a quick way for greedy doctors to make money."

 

The result of the quest for sons was clear in the 2001 census. From the ages of birth to 6, there were 927 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 945 girls a decade earlier.

 

But that national figure masked big local variations. In northern Punjab state, for instance, there were 793 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 875 girls in 1991. The global ratio is about 1,005 females to 1,000 males.

 

India has had a long history of female infanticide--of girls poisoned, suffocated, drowned or left to die.

 

In the early 19th century, British Col. Alexander Walker recorded his horror at seeing a mother drowning her newborn girl in a trough of milk in the western Gujarat region.

 

But now abortion of female fetuses or "female feticide" has become common with the easy availability of ultrasound sex tests.

 

While such tests, costing as little as 600 rupees ($12.42), are illegal across India, the law is regularly flouted and clinics offering sex tests abound. Portable ultrasound machines mean the tests can be done even in remote areas.

 

"It's illegal but it's happening all over. It's available at an affordable price," New Delhi social worker Mira Shiva of the Voluntary Health Association told Reuters.

 

The yearning for a son is deep-rooted social phenomenon.

 

"A lot of it is economically based. If you have children you're better off having boys because the sons will take care of you in your old age," Bose said.

 

DAUGHTERS LEAVE HOME

 

Daughters, on the other hand, leave home when they wed and a dowry--which can range from $100 to a new car, jewelry, apartment or more--can prove crippling for a family.

 

Social activists say many who seek to find out the sex of their unborn child are poor, rural and illiterate.

 

The prejudice against girls also stretches into urban centers such as the capital, New Delhi, where the census showed about 850 girls per 1,000 boys in some affluent neighborhoods.

 

"Often a woman who gives birth to a daughter gets treated much worse than one who gives birth to a son," Shiva said.

 

"Some commit suicide they're so worried about how they'll be treated by their husband's family. The family may be educated, have money. This discrimination is across-the-board," she said.

 

"Girls are seen as a burden and the fact educated women are willing to abort their girls shows their social conditioning."

 

Shiva says the government's push for two-child families to slow population growth has only worsened the situation.

 

"With the small family norm, many people want boys so they have abortions and keep trying when it's a girl," she said.

 

In neighboring China where there is a similar traditional preference for boys and a controversial one-child rule to keep the population down, there is also a big sex imbalance.

 

Social workers in India say the trend will mean major social problems ahead and make it harder for young men to wed.

 

"People won't be able to find girls to marry for their sons. People in some places are already finding it hard. There will be more prostitution, social instability, wife buying," Shiva said.

 

The government, alarmed by the number of "missing females," has introduced legislation to ban routine ultrasounds on women below the age of 35 but the measure still has to be passed.

 

In Alwar, to tackle the problem, municipal officials have launched a poster drive with the message: "Killing a female fetus is a sin for which no one can atone."

 

Elsewhere, authorities have used other approaches. In southern Tamil Nadu state, for instance, authorities run a program for parents of unwanted girls to leave them in cradles outside hospitals.

 

At a public meeting in Salem in Tamil Nadu where officials say female infanticide is common, the program chief was shocked when two mothers gave him their babies and showed no emotion.

 

"But then I realized this is a positive development," J. Radakrishnan told The Indian Express newspaper. "It shows people are thinking twice about killing their baby girls."