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Gender-based abortions in India is no longer the man-bites-dog breaking news story. It's such a pervasive practice that it probably doesn't outrage us enough to tackle it on a war footing. It is recognized as a problem by law, it makes some men shift in their seats and many women unhappy. In other words, it runs the risk of becoming just another addition to the endless list of gender issues that we know the country needs to deal with, and hope that time and a robust economy will drive it to its natural death.
I seriously doubt that this menace will go away with time and money unless we constantly work to keep it at the top of our act-now lists. And here's why.
The argument goes, that as women (and men) get educated, employed and exposed to opportunities, prejudices fade away. Well that logic doesn't seem to apply in India and for good reason. The BBC recently reported that some British mothers of Indian origin were most likely aborting female fetuses. In an interview, a woman admitted having traveled to India to determine the sex of her fetus and terminate the pregnancy if they found out it was a girl. In a sting operation, the BBC outed a renowned gynecologist --- recommended by the British High Commission and known for her public stance against female feticide --- who offered to conduct an ultrasound to determine the sex of a fetus -- which is illegal in India -- and also recommend someone if the [dummy] couple wanted to abort the fetus. [Following the expose, the doctor's license was suspended pending investigation.]
So what makes it possible for us to flout the law so easily in India? What about the doctor, a woman herself? It will take an entire conference to get to the bottom of this. But I'll take a shot at summarizing here some issues that help keep the problem alive and also point to a study that has done a pretty decent and detailed job of getting a handle on the issue.
India's skewed sex ratio is deeply troubling. The 2001 census reports 933 girls per 1,000 men, the ratio being worse in urban areas, the first sign that education and urbanization don't necessarily mean equity. Also, different regions (and religious/social groups) have thrown up different patterns of sex ratios at birth: meaning, one sweeping tactic will not solve the entire nation's problem.
Let me point you to the 2007 United Nations Population Fund report on India's gender bias and the practice of sex selective abortions. This is probably the most exhaustive and culturally-sensitive report that I have read so far about the problem, its causes, how it plays out socially across the country, and how this problem -- if allowed to grow unfettered -- can shake up the social fabric in the next two-four decades.
An interesting projection the study makes is that by 2025 or so, thanks to late marriages and fewer women , Indian men will find themselves in abundance and unmarried, with no women to pick from. It also fears that fewer women could lead to more violent crimes against women, and will also hit economically poorer men the hardest, as women will seek out financially sound or more affluent partners.
The report is a tad long -- 30-odd pages long -- but totally worth the read if you want to understand the problem.
(Note: The report measures sex ratio as number of males per 100 females, the Indian census records it as number of females per 1000 males.)
Most of the issues I raise here are mentioned in the report one way or the other. I am harping on them because it's easy not to see them playing a crucial role in keeping the practice alive. They are sticky issues that need people to stand up and act at the cost of possible confrontations and skirmishes that we, tradition and family-loving Indians, would love to skirt around.
As the report points out, in the 1980s, new abortion laws and access to pre-natal sex determination technologies led to a sharp deterioration in the child (0-4 years) sex-ratio. The figures also show that child sex ratio worsens in urban areas where couples and families are more likely to have access to sex determination technologies. Northern and Western India are the worst affected. Punjab, a state with one of India's worst sex ratio's, came the gruesome story of a doctor dumping aborted female fetuses
