Female Foeticide

Introduction

Eligible Jat boys from Haryana travel 3,000 km across the country to find themselves a bride. With increasingly fewer girls in Haryana, they are seeking brides from as far away as Kerala as the only way to change their single status.
          The girls have not vanished overnight. Decades of sex determination tests and female foeticide that has acquired genocide proportions are finally catching up with states in India.

This is only the tip of the demographic and social problems confronting India in the coming years. Skewed sex ratios have moved beyond the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. With news of increasing number of female foetuses being aborted from Orissa to Bangalore there is ample evidence to suggest that the next census will reveal a further fall in child sex ratios throughout the country.[1]

Female foeticide is the act of aborting a fetus because it is female. This is a major social problem in India and has cultural connections with the dowry system that is ingrained in Indian culture, despise the fact that it has been prohibited by law since 1961. See Dowry law in India. In India a strong preference for sons over daughters exists, unlike in Western cultures. People realise smaller family sizes with relatively greater number of sons by abuse of medical technologies. Pregnancies are planned by resorting to 'differential contraception' — contraception is used based on the number of surviving sons irrespective of family size. Following conception, foetal sex is determined by prenatal diagnostic techniques after which female foetuses are aborted. Foetal sex determination and sex-selective abortion by medical professionals has grown into a Rs. 1,000 crore industry  Social discrimination against women and a preference for sons have been promoted. Since 1991, 80% of districts in India have recorded an increasingly masculine sex ratio with the state of Punjab having the most masculine sex ratio. According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981, to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 109.4 in 2011. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana (126.1 and 122.0, as of 2001).[2]

Punjab has a long history of doing away with newborn girls. The preferred method today is foeticide after a sex determination test, but centuries ago the practice was to bury them. This tradition perhaps goes back to the days of repeated invasions by Muslim armies from the northwest, who used to carry off girls as booty for their own pleasure or to be sold in the slave markets of the Middle East. Today, it is the extortionate dowries that parents of girls have to provide upon marriage. The custom of polyandry in Punjab probably arose out of the shortage of girls - the eldest son of a family would take a wife, his younger brothers would also have access to her.

One of Guru Nanak's oft quoted hymns condemns the denigration of women: 'We are born of women and nurtured by them, we fall in love with them and they bear us sons and daughters. How can you belittle women who give birth to kings?' His words had little impact - the killing of newborn girls continued as before, though practised more among the land-owning zamindars than by the common folk.

At the end of the first Sikh war, when the British annexed half of the Sikh kingdom, the Sikh zamindars of the region met John Lawrence, who had been appointed commissioner, to confirm their land holdings. He insisted on their signing pledges that they would not bury lepers alive, refrain from burning widows and stop burying newborn girls. The zamindars protested, saying Lawrence had promised that the two sides would not interfere with each others' religious customs. Lawrence agreed that he had indeed done so, adding that British religious custom was to hang anyone who followed these practices. That put an end to sati and the murder of lepers, and though female infanticide was checked it probably continued surreptitiously.

After Independence, and the passing of the Hindu Code Bill giving equal rights to inherit ancestral property to sons and daughters, things again took a turn for the worse with the murder of newborn girls gaining momentum, especially in propertied families. With medical science able to detect the sex of the child in the womb, the practice has become much more widespread, resulting in a situation today where the ratio of females to males in Punjab is the lowest in the country.[3]

The practice of female foeticide is more prevalent among relatively rich and educated families. This flies in the face of ideas about backward women being enslaved to old customs. But it is consistent with ‘modern’ women being more receptive to new technologies and wanting fewer children. These factors appear to override lower self-reported ‘son preference’ among women of higher socio-economic status.

After taking into account differences in wealth and education among the religions, we find that Hindu women, especially high caste women, are more likely to conduct sex selection. There is no discernible evidence of sex selection among Muslim women. A likely explanation is that, even if they have a similar preference for sons, Islam is more averse to abortion. This reconciles with evidence that the sex ratio is more balanced in Pakistan and Bangladesh than it is in India. A recent study of Canada also observes that there is female foeticide amongst Indian and Chinese immigrants but not amongst Muslim immigrants (Almond, Edlund and Milligan 2009).

Women in India have made some progress and occupy key positions including the President, the Chairperson of the largest political party, the Chief Executive Officer’s of the big Companies.  In spite of these achievements, the fact is that ordinary women’s condition is beset with difficulties.

Women who constitute half of the population have been discriminated, harassed and exploited irrespective of the religion, class or creed they belong to. In  Indian society women have been worshipped in various forms such as Maa Durga [symbol of Shakti], Goddess Saraswati [symbol of Vidya], Maha Lakshmi [symbol of wealth] on one hand and denied the most basic fundamental right, i.e., right to life, by killing the female foetus inside the womb.

The social, cultural and religious fibre of India is predominantly patriarchal contributing extensively to the secondary status of women.  The patrilineal social structure based on the foundation that the family runs through a male and makes male a precious commodity that needs to be protected and given special status.  Another important pillar of the patriarchal structure is marriage wherein women are given subordinate status having no say in the running of their life or any control over their body or bodily integrity.  Marriage is also considered as a process whereby the burden of the father is passed on to the husband for a very high price.  All of this has contributed to a low status for women in the society to such an extent that even the birth of girl child in a family is sought to be avoided.

Female foeticide is one extreme manifestation of violence against women.  It is a practice that involves the detection of the sex of the unborn baby in the womb of the mother and the decision to abort if the sex of child is detected as girl.  Compared to infanticide, foeticide is probably a more acceptable means of disposing off the unwanted girl child.

The practice of eliminating female fetuses is believed to be the main reason for the adverse child sex ratio.  Pre birth elimination of females seems to be more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas, but the gap is rapidly decreasing because of easy availability of sex determination tests in rural areas.[4]  For instance in South West Delhi, where some of the richest and most educated Indians reside, has a child sex ratio of only 845 in 2001 as against 904 in 1991.[5]

In June, a doctor was arrested for conducting 260 female foeticides after police recovered bones and skulls from a septic tank in a maternity clinic in New Delhi.  One month later, on 23^rd July, 2007, the Orissa Police recovered 30 polythene bags stuffed with female fetuses and body parts of new born babies from a dry well near a private clinic in Nayaghar close to Bhubaneshwar.[6] Reasons for such inhuman acts may be many but the main cause seems to be the social belief that the boy is a protector and care giver and the girl is a liability and a burden.  The traditional patriarchal society has embedded a bias in the Indian psyche in favour of male child and it has become an obsession.

Sex selective abortion is a fairly recent phenomena but its root can be traced back to the age old practice of female infanticide.  In the late eighteenth century, infanticide was initially documented by British officials who recorded it in their diaries during their travels.  Even though there existed penal provisions in the Indian Penal Code from Sections 312 to 316 pertaining to forced miscarriage, the abnormal sex ratio of 940 women to 1000 men prompted British to pass the Infanticide Act in 1870.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 legalised abortions and permitted abortion on following grounds:

i]         Therapeutics: Where continuation of pregnancy might endanger the mother’s life or cause grave injury to her physical or mental health.

ii]        Eugenic: The basis of eugenic abortion is that there is justification for abortion when it is known before birth that the child will be born mentally or physically deformed.

iii]       Pregnancy caused by rape: The problem of a pregnancy caused by rape may affect mental health of mother.

iv]       Failure of contraceptive devices: This condition virtually allows abortion at request. The  ban on the Government hospitals and clinics at the Centre and in the States, making use of prenatal sex determination for purpose of abortion a penal offence led to commercialization of technology and private clinics providing sex determination tests through aminiocentesis multiplied rapidly and widely. The portable ultra sound machine has further facilitated doctors to go from house to house.

The gross misuse of technological advancement aggravated the problem of female foeticide and ultra sound machines that were earlier used for other medical purposes were being used to determine the sex of the child.  To arrest this evil, the Forum against Sex Determination and Sex Pre Selection [FASDSP], a broad forum of feminist and human rights groups, was formed in 1984 and it lobbied for legislation to ban the practice. In 1988, the state of Maharashtra, passed the Maharashtra Regulation of use of Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1988, banning prenatal diagnostic practices.

On September 20, 1994, the Parliament of India, enacted the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, which came into force from January, 1996. Later, the Act was amended with effect from February 14, 2003 and was renamed the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994.  This was a response to the directions given by the Apex Court in Cehat & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors..[7] After the enactment of the Act in 1994, first conviction was in the year 2006, where a doctor and a Lab technician were sentenced to two year of imprisonment under the Act.[8]  Although sex determination services are no longer easily openly available but their clandestine availability and utilization continues all over the country.

The consequences of eliminating at least 10 lakh girls before birth every decade, for our society, particularly surviving women are indeed catastrophic.  Violence against women will reach unprecedented levels in the coming years.  Imbalance in sex ratio will increase immorality and heighten prostitution.  Men could become criminals and indulge in socially disruptive behaviour that could destroy the fabric of Nation and result in increase in anti national activities.

1.2. OBJECTIVES

Female foeticide is now more widespread in the country than ever before. The practice which was restricted to few states a few years ago has now spread all over the country. Accessibility to sex determination and safe medical termination of pregnancies have aggravated the problem. Also the combination of patriarchy and feudalism embedded in the fabric of our society have made matters worse. Dowry system and poverty also play a crucial role in the community’s preference for a male child. Today the declining sex ratio should not be looked upon as something natural or as a sudden change. It is a problem of growing magnitude and needs to be understood in all its social and cultural implications. An attempt is being made through this study to discuss some of the important issues related to this barbarism.

The study makes an attempt:

·        To analyze and evaluate the legal provisions regarding sex selective abortions.

·        To analyze the causes for growth of female foeticide in India.

·        To analyze the judicial response towards the problem.

·        To study the effectiveness of the various laws in curbing female foeticide.

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[1] www.unicef.org/india/media_3285.html accessed on 26/03/2013

[2] www.en.wikipeadia.org/wiki/female_foeticide_in_india accessed on 26/03/2013

[3] www.sikhphilosophy.net

[4]     A Socio Cultural Study of Declining Sex Ratio in Delhi & Haryana-Report 2008, published by National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child development, p.3

[5]     Lalit Dadwal & Kusum Chauhan, “Female  Foeticide – A Synoptic View of Socio-legal Aspects”, 35(1&2), Indian Socio-legal Journal, 2009, p.25.

[6]     ‘No end of Female foeticide in India’, http://www.dancewithshadows.com/society/female-foeticide.asp.

[7]     AIR 2001 SC 2007.

[8]     ‘Female Foeticide : Need to change the Mindset of people’, .