Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
SANCHITA SHARMA
NEW DELHI, AUG 8: Thousands of girls who are killed before they are born were given a voice at the first National Workshop on Gender Bias: Female Foeticide/Infaticide organised by the IMA Women Wing and UNICEF here recently.
How deep the malaise ran became evident when Dr Vibha Parthasarthy, Chairman, National Commission of Women, quoted a survey that found that of 8,000 foetuses aborted in a Mumbai district, 7,999 were girls.
Talking about these unborn victims were Dr Sharda Jain of Lifecare, Centre for Women Care & Research, Dr Kamal Buckshee, former Head of Department of Gynaecology. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ashish Bose, demorapher and member of the Independent Commission on Health in India, Dr V B Athreya and Dr Shanti Ghosh.pUnanimous in their condemmnation of the increasing incidence of female foeticide were Delhi's Health Minister Dr A K Walia, Dr Ketan Desai, President, Medical Council of India, Dr V C Patel, President, Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Dr Prem Agarwal,President, IMA. It's not that we do not have laws. The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994 clearly states that ultrasound and other devices being used for sex determination are meant to detect genetic abnormalities, and should not be used for determining the sex of the unborn child.
Liberal abortion laws, however, make it easy for unscrupulous doctors to carry out selective foeticide. ``We have the laws to stop them, but we need to give them teeth through public awareness and initiating strict disciplinary proceedings against errant doctors,'' said Jain.
Equally stringent in her condemnation of doctors who abetted female foeticide was Parthasarathy, who said she considered female foeticide more violent than any other act of violence because it was possible only with professional inputs of educated people.
The gender disparity is increasing. The Census of India 1991 records that there were 945 woemn per 1,000 men in 1991, down from 976 women per 1,000 men (0-6years) in 1961. Punjab (875 women per 1,000 men) and Haryana (879) have the worst records, but even a highly literate State, Kerala, reflected the nationwide trend, with its female population in the under-six age-group falling from 972 in 1961 to 958 per 1,000 men.
Highlighting the ``unholy alliance between technology and tradition to perpetuate the gender bias,'' Bose squarely blamed ignorance and the flawed family planning programme for the rising demographic disparity.
``Ninety-five per cent of the people who go for contraception are women,'' he said, ``Everyone here has been talking about the missing women here. I want to know where the missing men are.''
Instead of giving monetary incentives to encourage family planning, he suggested the Government give incentives like scholarhsips and free education to improve the literacy rate, which is lower than 10 per cent for women in Rajasthan.
The conference also had its lighter moments. Bose pointed out that if the present trend continued, the shortageof women would soon force men to stop asking for dowry and pay bride-price instead. And that the only foreseeable result of gender-specific foeticide in the next millennium would be homosexuality!
Women should be empowered to say no, she felt, ``for ony when she is equipped with functionally useful literacy and vocational skills will she be able to exercise choices and take decisions that go against socially accepted norms,'' said Parthasarathy.
Buckshee gave abortion a medical perspective, and listed the complications that arise from medial terminations of pregnancies like perforation of the uterus, cervical tears, septicemia, haemorrhage, infection, infertility and death.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------