Female foeticide is common in India. The
parents-to-be get the sex of their unborn
child checked by ultrasonography, and if it is
a girl, they abort the pregnancy.
This practice has invited outrage from the
human rights organisations, the government,
NGOs, intellectuals, religious organisations
and others. It is a crime under law to abort a
pregnancy just because the foetus is that of a
female. Ultrasound clinics, which have
mushroomed in the cities and towns, have
been told in no uncertain terms that sex
determination is illegal.
There are three questions to be asked:
-What is the psycho-pathology behind this
trend?
-Should this trend be curbed?
-How should it be curbed?
Aetiology In India, family ties form the basis
of society. Children depend upon their
parents usually till they are 25 years old (or
even more), and parents expect their
children to support them in their old age.
Social security is not provided by the
government. There are no professional old
age homes in India. It is almost impossible to
find a hospital where a patient is treated
solely by the attentions of the hospital staff.
The presence of a family member is always
required. Even in Intensive Care Units, a
family member usually serves as an
attendant, to bring medicines and surgical
supplies, to keep a tab on the intravenous
infusions, and so on. In short, it is impractical
for a person, though he may be rich and
influential, to depend on institutions for care
and medical treatment.
In India, after marriage, the woman transfers
her attentions to the her husband and his
family. It is not expected of her to fulfill any
role at her parental home. The man, however,
does not face any such transfer of
responsibility. In India, most women do not
get vocational training. Most of them settle
for low-skill and low-paying jobs such as
school teachers, maid-servants, farm hands,
day-wagers and so on. These jobs are very
strenuous, but they do not require extensive
skills or training. There is cut-throat
competition for permanent, government, or
high-paying jobs; and invariably, since a
woman has to deal with motherhood and
bringing up of her children, she compromises
with her career to the benefit of her family.
From childhood itself, she is groomed for the
role of a mother and of a wife, not for the role
of an earning member of society. Earning
potential of women is therefore low. The
custom of an expensive ceremony at the
time of marriage, and of paying dowry to the
groom's family, is very prevalent in India. In
India, divorce is uncommon. It is hard for a
divorced woman to get remarried, to get
social respect and to fend for herself and her
children with dignity. These factors have the
following implications: A woman considers
her family and marriage to be of far greater
significance than her career. A woman is
economically dependant on her husband
throughout her life. She is an asset for the
husband's family. She fulfills the parts of a
domestic servant, baby-sitter, earner, nurse
for her parents-in-law, ... She is a liability for
her natural parents. If she is thrown out of
her husband's home, they have to take her
back and face the ire of society who usually
gives her a bad name. Hence, they have to
continue being agreeable to their son-in-law
and to accept his demands for dowry etc.
Woman's status in society is very low. As
sexual crimes are rampant in India and law
enforcement and deterrence is very low, she
is not safe without an escort. In her youth,
she has to be protected from getting a bad
name, as this would harm her marriage
prospects. It can be readily seen from the
above observations that a daughter is a big
burden on her natural parents and she herself
is a sufferer throughout life. On the other
hand, a son is considered an investment
which will pay off in the form of service and
support to his old parents and which will bring
a nurse, maid-servant and cook for free at
their home. Hence, to have, and to be a
daughter is a curse in India. It is therefore,
not surprising, that parents prefer to have a
son. The value placed on a son is so great
that it is not uncommon to see parents
tolerating the births of two or three
daughters in the hope that the next offspring
would be a son. Hence female foeticide is
considered a welcome technology by the
Indian masses in their struggle against
getting a daughter.
Clinical Picture
We have discussed the causes of this
phenomenon.
What are, now, its effects?
It leads to an artifically skewed sex-ratio. In
most regions in North India, the ratio of
females to males has fallen below 900. In
some towns it is as low as 750. This leads to
further tension and crime in society. Men will
fight over women, society will become even
more predatory and hence protective of
women, women will have less and less
freedom because a valuable asset will not be
allowed to roam freely and form associations
of her own, ... It is averred by many that the
skewed sex ratio will automatically make
women more in-demand and thus increase
their social status, and thus reverse this
trend. This argument has some force, but in
the meanwhile, the following effects continue
to be: It leads to disease.
Frequent abortions play havoc with the
physiology and health of the mother. It has
harmful mental effects. Voluntary abortion is
psychologically a traumatic event for both
parents, more so for the mother.
Ultrasonographic sex-determination is an
imprecise technology which can give wrong
results. Consider the mental state of a family
which has been happily expecting a boy and
gets a girl child instead. What kind of a life
that girl child is going to have?
As this technology has been declared illegal,
only criminally-inclined doctors and
technicians now indulge in it. Hence it has
become even more un-trustworthy and
dangerous. Abortions performed in secret are
going to be unsafe. For no fault of her own, a
girl child in the womb is killed before her
birth. It is thus clear that ultrasonographic
sex-determination, and subsequent abortion,
is a short-sighed and dangerous way to rid
oneself of the burdens that society has put on
oneself. The real disease is the social pattern
and government planning which has made
sons into a preferred commodity and
daughters into a liability. Female foeticide is
not the way to change society.
Remedy
Dowry is already illegal. The law is being
enforced as well. Social security for old
people must be a great priority for the
government. Hospitals must be better, and
self-sufficient in providing of care to their
parents. They must not depend on the
presence of a family attendant. This is slowly
becoming true only for the most expensive of
hospitals. Vocational training for women
must be a great priority for the government.
Women must be given an introduction to
legal processes. Free legal counsel must be
available to poor citizens. Free, and high
quality, creches and kindergartens must be
established widely. This can be an additional
employment opportunity for women. This is
also a very low cost enterprise. Any violation
of the personal freedom of a mature person
to engage in consensual relationships with
the opposite sex must be severely punished.
In India, clans, tribes, caste-people, families,
police, schools, colleges, priests all seem to
have taken it upon themselves to be the
moral guardians of society. One frequently
reads reports about police picking up young
lovers from parks, clans murdering newly
wed couples because the couple did not seek
their permission to marry, and so on. The
society must be rid of this tendency. Only
then will women feel secure and free. Only
abortion because of a medical condition
should be legal. This also means wide
availability of birth control measures
(exercised prior to conception), for
otherwise, its enforcement will just result in
increased misery for the parents and the
unwanted child.
You can write to the writer at
navpreet@utopiandreamers.com
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