nomad4ever

Actually – todays picture isn’t so funny after all. It’s more a really sad story.

In many poorer countries it is considered bad luck, if your child is a girl rather than a boy.

The century-old perception is as follows: a boy will be able to work and support mother and father one day, thus bringing money into the family; while a girl will rely on other family members or has to be paid dowry for, when she gets married – thus costing the family money.

This is especially a problem in India:

Here, Prenatal Sex Determination is the main reason, why there were officially abortions of over 10 Million Female Fetuses over the last 2 decades alone!

It’s estimated that around 500.000 female fetuses are now aborted every year. Even though that may seem like a small number in the world’s most populous country; already today, the male-to-female ratio in India is shifting slightly out of balance and more boys than girls are born.

Society or Poverty to blame?

Girls and women are still considered the weak gender in India and under a constant strain of discrimination and denigration. A study measuring gender equality placed India at the 113th spot out of the 130 countries considered. As well in Asia, India has the lowest female literacy rate of only 54%. Every second girl in India is undernourished and the reason is not poverty but discriminating feeding practices! Child-abuse and violence against girls and women is a serious problem in the country. Also it is said, that twice as many girls as boys are engaged in child labor in the country.

The pressure to have a baby boy is still very high in India (but many other Asian countries also). Many think that this pressure is usually coming from the mother-in-laws, but a new survey, taken in Gujarat – India’s state with the worst sex ratio of only 879 girls per 1.000 boys – shows that more than 50% of all couples derive on that decision together.

The most popular methods used to pre-determine the sex of a baby before birth are sonography, fetoscopy, needling, chorion villa biopsy (CVB), and amniocentesis (analysis of uterine fluid). Most of these techniques were originally developed to detect genetic and congenital deformities, but here in India they quickly found different uses.

So often, when parents find out that the fetus is a girl, those who favor boys simply claim contraceptive failure and would seek medical termination of the pregnancy.

The Law is the Law is… a paper tiger

Due to the shifting gender ratio, most state governments in India now declared those methods illegal, starting in 1996. Still the practice can’t be eradicated.

Plenty of smaller private clinics advertise in newspapers clinics and even use code words to disguise their services – for instance just the word “ultrasound” carries the hidden message, that the sex of an unborn can be revealed and thus actions could follow accordingly.

As with everything, the law looks good on paper, but the bureaucracy in India is legendary as well. So far, although there are more than 300 cases of prosecution for breach of the sex determination laws, not a single case of conviction is known. All while the abuse of sex determination still remains wide-spread throughout the country.

Also, other methods to pre-plan the sex of children are very common and not illegal. Diet Control Methods, Centrifuging of Chromosomes, special Drugs (e.g. tablets known as ‘Select’), vaginal jelly or sacred beads (‘rudraksh’) are all in use to rather conceive a boy than a girl.

—

The above picture was taken at Vrundavan Hospital in Mapusa, North Goa. The sign says: “Sex determination of fetus before birth is liable for prosecution. Anyone contravening this is punishable by five years imprisonment. The State Family Welfare Bureau, Directorate of Health Services, Government of Goa”.

.

or save article to your Facebook with 1 simple click:

Share

written by Chris