The Disappearing Girl-Child

At a time when we are proudly celebrating the centenary of the International Women’s Year the threat of fetal homicide still looms large over the whole nation.

How can we dream of empowering women if we are not able to save the girl child in the first place? The growing incidence of female infanticide is shocking and exposes possibly the most brutal expression of the prejudice against the fairer sex. This phenomenon has claimed millions of lives in the past and continues to be a menace to society even today as I write this article. The problem is particularly acute in China and India, the two most populated nations in the world. What really is female infanticide?

Simply put it is the death of a baby girl in her mother’s womb. What is alarming is that it is sex-selective infanticide which targets the girl child exclusively for reasons that are non-justifiable.

The dowry system prevalent in our country has been one of the major causes for the rise of this practice but what is strange and completely incomprehensible is that instead of eradicating the dowry system the families have sought to eradicate the girl child!

Abortion happens when the fetus is destroyed before it develops into a baby but feticide happens when you kill the baby after it is fully formed and its sex is determined. Ironically advancement in science and technology instead of helping in the progress of mankind is being abused to eliminate innocent lives.

Feticide is tantamount to murder but long before such gender tests were carried out, people would indulge in the killing of girls once they were born. Sex determinations tests have only made their task easier and today sex-selective infanticide is rampant. The horror is so profound that today the number of girls known to die in their mother’s womb is far more than those dying in various stages of growing up. Private clinics are equipped with ultrasound machines that are mushrooming even in remote villages and nurturing this business of killing. People are more than willing to pay a few extra bucks to save themselves from becoming parents of a daughter. Interestingly this is being carried out by first time parents too!

How we curb this menace is the greatest challenge that we face as Indians today. Even when the child that survives the initial ordeal grows up she is discriminated against every step of the way whether it is in terms of nutrition, education or quality of life. Studies reveal that the number of female feticides in our country is nearly 500 crores that are executed in small or big clinics and by unregistered doctors and midwives.  A new medical graduate can easily set up this lucrative business even though our country has banned it. Even though laws have been made stringent doctors can simply hand a blue or a pink candy to parents wanting to know the sex of their unborn child for a hefty sum.

According to recent reports India has 933 daughters born every year as compared to 1000 sons. The deficit in the number of women in our country had been nearly 35 million at the onset of this millennium. Reports by the United Nations reveal that as many as 750,000 girls in our nation are aborted annually.

That is nothing short of genocide. Significantly the more affluent states face a graver crisis like Haryana, Punjab or Delhi. The UNICEF has repeatedly warned against this because the results are expected to be disastrous for the economy of the nation as a whole.

The Prohibition of Sex Selection Act was enacted in February 2003 that bans the use of ultrasound technology for fetus sex determination. Any individual including the pregnant woman may be imprisoned for a period of three years and asked to give a penalty of rs 50,000 if found guilty of doing this and the doctor in question can have his registration suspended by the state medical board.

The Pre-conception and techniques for pre-natal diagnosis Act was passed in 2003 too which completely prohibits any practice relating to sex selection before or after pregnancy. However none of these acts seemed to have been able to apply the brakes on the growing menace. Laws are extremely difficult to impose argue the campaigners of the girl child cause and till date hardly any mentionable case has come to court. The declining sex ratio is alarming and no stringent legal measure seems to be enough to control it.

What we can do to help the cause:

• Educating the citizens about the need to stop the sex selection tests and value of gender equality. What is needed is the growing awareness of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Act (PNDT) passed in 1994.
• Teaching the society about the plight of Indian women and the alarming incidence of sex selective abortions that can lead to more trafficking and violent acts.
• Increasing compliance of medical clinics, doctors and radiologists to the cause.
• Highlighting the spheres where women have excelled to try and change the mindset of the uneducated and ignorant masses.

The Community Services Guild or CSG is one such organization that is committed to the cause of female feticide. Besides strongly condemning this unfair social practice, the program also sends volunteers to teach women and their daughters various skills so that they can make a contribution to the family income. Unless we as a nation take active steps to protect the fairer sex from discrimination and demand respect for women from the time they are born to the day they die, we as a country, are under a moral siege.