Female Foeticide in India: Causes and Consequences

 

Dr. Naila Rashid, Dr. Sadaf Nasir

 

PGT (Psychology) SSSC Boys, AMU, Aligarh,

Guest Faculty, D/o. Sociology, AMU, Aligarh,

 

 

Everywhere women are confronted with many challenges. Female foeticide is perhaps one of the worst forms of violence against women where a woman is denied her most basic and fundamental right i.e “the right to life”. Feticide or foeticide is an act that causes the death of a fetus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feticide). This act has been increasing making this world unsafe for women. Female foeticide is one of the most nefarious crimes on this earth; perhaps what is detestable is that the people who commit crime belong to the educated class. To this menace our ancestral and biased view about male child, lack of education, ever increasing population and dowry have been good propellants (www.legalserviceindia. com/article/l292-Female-Foeticide.html). The phenomenon of female foeticide in India is not new, where female embryos or foetuses are selectively eliminated after pre-natal sex determination, thus eliminating girl child even before they are born. As a result of selective abortion, between 35 and 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian population. In some parts of the country, the sex ratio of girls to boys has dropped to less than 800:1000. The United Nations has expressed serious concern about the situation. The long standing tradition of son preference, coupled with medical technology now gives to the status conscious Indian families, the choice between payment of large dowry for their daughters or elimination of daughters. The traditional method of getting rid of the unwanted girl child was female infanticide, where the female baby was done away with after birth in various ways-either by poisoning the baby or letting her choke on husk or simply by crushing her skull under a charpoy. With the advancement of medical technology sophisticated techniques can now be used or rather misused, to get rid of her before birth. Through ultrasound scans and amniocentesis, the sex of the foetus can be determined during the pregnancy of the woman and then the foetus is aborted if found to be female (Mehta & Jayna, 2001).

 

Female infanticide is not uncommon in Indian society, and is still prevalent in certain parts of the country. With the advancement of modern technology its practice, however, has taken a different shape. Now it is possible to detect the sex of the baby when it is still in the womb of the mother. This has made it possible to abort the female foetus, if it is unwanted. The most commonly used sex determination test is amniocentesis. Discovered primarily for the detection of foetal malformations, it has, over the years, been used to determine the sex of the foetus. In India, since 1978, the test is being used as a sex determination or sex preselection test. Since then, the test has become extremely popular and has led to a mushrooming of private clinics, which perform the test, all over the country. The seriousness and social implications of this practice were realised only in 1986 (Kaur, 1993).

 

The adverse sex ratio has been linked with the low status of women in Indian communities, both Hindu and Muslim.


The status of women in a society can be determined by their education, health, and economic role, presence in the professions and management, and decision-making power within the family. It is deeply influenced by the beliefs and values of society. Islam permits polygamy and gives women fewer rights than men. Among Hindus, preference for the male child is likewise deeply enshrined in belief and practice. The Ramayana and the Manusmriti (the Laws of Manu) represent the ideal woman as obedient and submissive, and always needing the care of a male: first father, then husband, then son.

 

The birth of a son is regarded as essential in Hinduism and many prayers and lavish offerings are made in temples in the hope of having a male child. Modern medical technology is used in the service of this religion-driven devaluing of women and girls.

 

Religion operates alongside other cultural and economic factors in lowering the status of women. The practice of dowry has spread nationwide, to communities and castes in which it had never been the custom, fuelled by consumerism and emulation of upper caste practices. In the majority of cases, the legal system has no impact on the practice of dowry. It is estimated that a dowry death occurs in India every 93 minutes.

 

The need for a dowry for girl children, and the ability to demand a dowry for boys exerts considerable economic pressure on families to use any means to avoid having girls, who are seen as a liability. Sonalda Desai has reported that there are posters in Bombay advertising sex-determination tests that read, ‘It is better to pay 500 Rs now than 50,000 Rs (in dowry) later’.

 

Women and Developments in Reproductive Technology Abortion was legalized in India in 1971 (Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act) to strengthen humanitarian values (pregnancy can be aborted if it is a result of sexual assault, contraceptive failure, if the baby would be severely handicapped, or if the mother is incapable of bearing a healthy child). Amniocentesis was introduced in 1975 to detect foetal abnormalities but it soon began to be used for determining the sex of the baby. Ultrasound scanning, being a non-invasive technique, quickly gained popularity and is now available in some of the most remote rural areas. Both techniques are now being used for sex determination with the intention of abortion if the foetus turns out to be female. These methods do not involve manipulation of genetic material to select the sex of a baby. Recent preconception gender selection (PGS), however, includes flow cytometry, preimplantation gender determination of the embryo, and in vitro fertilization to ensure the birth of a baby of the desired sex without undergoing abortion. In PGS, X and Y sperms are separated and the enriched sperms are used to fertilize the ovum. The method was intended to reduce the risk of diseases related to the X chromosome, which are far more likely to occur in boys than in girls (who have two X chromosomes). Ironically, it is being used in India to avoid giving birth to girl children.

 

Most of those in the medical profession, being part of the same gender biased society, are steeped in the same attitudes concerning women. It is scarcely surprising that they are happy to fulfil the demands of prospective parents. Medical malpractice in this area is flourishing, and bans on gender selection, for example in Maharashtra, have had little effect.

 

Consequences of Female Foeticide:

Given the lower value placed on women in Indian society, prenatal sex determination with the intention of preventing female births must be viewed as a manifestation of violence against women, a violation of their human rights. The pregnant woman, though often equally anxious to have a boy, is frequently pressurized to undergo such procedures. Many women suffer from psychological trauma as a result of forcibly undergoing repeated abortions. More generally, demographers warn that in the next twenty years there will be a shortage of brides in the marriage market mainly because of the adverse juvenile sex ratio, combined with an overall decline in fertility. While fertility is declining more rapidly in urban and educated families, nevertheless the preference for male children remains strong. For these families, modern medical technologies are within easy reach. Thus selective abortion and sex selection are becoming more common.

 

In rural areas, as the number of marriageable women declines, men would tend to marry younger women, leading to a rise in fertility rates and thus a high rate of population growth. The abduction of girls is an associated phenomenon. The Hindustan Times recently reported that young girls from Assam and West Bengal are kidnapped and sold into marriage in neighbouring Haryana.

 

The impact on society should not be underestimated. According to Chinese estimates, by 2020 there are likely to be 40 million unmarried young men, called guang guan or ‘bare branches’, in China, because of the adverse sex ratio. A society with a preponderance of unmarried young men is prone to particular dangers. More women are likely to be exploited as sex workers. Increases in molestations and rape are an obvious result. The sharp rise in sex crimes in Delhi have been attributed to the unequal sex ratio (www.rootideas.com/2009/09/female-foeticide-2/).

 

Over the years, a number of news items and articles have also appeared in the newspapers highlighting the increasing popularity of the sex pre-selection test. Simultaneously, a number of social organisations started campaigning for a ban on the test. They pleaded that the test is not only discriminatory and inhuman but also has dangerous social implications. The reduced sex ratio would lead to polyandry, prostitution and other crimes against women (Kaur, 1993).

 

But does the Indian society accept this reality? If so why female foeticide and female infanticide are on the increase? The sex ratio has altered consistently in favour of boys since the beginning of the 20th century, and the effect has been most pronounced in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. It was in these states that private foetal sex determination clinics were first established and the practice of selective abortion became popular from the late 1970s. Worryingly, the trend is far stronger in urban rather than rural areas, and among literate rather than illiterate women (Grewal & Kishore, 2004).

 

People both in rural as well as in urban areas have to be made aware about the need of a female child in the social milieu as that of a son. A progressive legislation alone cannot solve social problems. The people must be aware of the progressive legislation which has certain deterrent facts. Many women are compelled to undergo tests and seek abortion on acceptable as well as unacceptable grounds under compulsion. A new spirit has to be imbibed propagating that a female child is not a curse. It is not a liability. It is not a drain on economy. It is not an instrument through which dowry has to be given. Apart from the above, a feeling has to be inculcated in the minds of the people that she is the daughter, she is the sister, she is the mother and she is the life partner of a man.

 

REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.       Grewal, Indu & Kishore, J. 2004. Female Foeticide in India. IHN 2004.2m May / International Humanist News.

2.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feticide

3.       Kaur, Manmeet. 1993. Female Foeticide-A Sociological Perspective. The Journal of Family Welfare, 39(1), Pp. 40-43, March Location: SNDT Churchgate.

4.       Mehta, Swati & Jayna Kothari. 2001.It’s A Girl! Pre-Natal Sex Selection and the Law”, Lawyers collective, Nov.

5.       www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l292-Female-Foeticide.html

6.       www.rootideas.com/2009/09/female-foeticide-2/

 

Received on 25.04.2013

Modified on 07.05.2013

Accepted on 13.05.2013           

© A&V Publication all right reserved

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 4(3): July-September,  2013, 344-346