Female foeticide in India: Difference between revisions

'''Female foeticide in India''' ({{lang-hi|text=[[wikt:भ्रूण|भ्रूण]] [[wikt:हत्या|हत्या]]|translit=bhrūṇ-hatyā|translation=foeticide}}) is the [[abortion]] of a female foetus outside of legal methods. The natural [[Human sex ratio|sex ratio]] is assumed to be between 103 and 107, and any number above it is considered as suggestive of female foeticide. According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in 0 to 6 age group in India has risen from 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961,<ref>[http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Ad_Campaign/press/DataHighlghts.pdf Data Highlights - 2001 Census] Census Bureau, Government of India</ref> to 104.2 in 1980, to 107.5 in 2001, to 108.9 in 2011.<ref name=c2011>[http://www.census2011.co.in/p/glance.php India at Glance - Population Census 2011 - Final] Census of India, Government of India (2013)</ref>

The [[Indian census]] data indicates that the sex ratio is poor when women have one or two children, but gets better as they have more children, which is result of sex-selective "stopping practices" (stopping having children based on sex of those born).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sex-ratio-worsens-in-small-families-improves-with-3-or-more-children/articleshow/50989227.cms|title=Sex ratio worsens in small families, improves with 3 or more children &#124; India News|website=The Times of India}}</ref> The [[Indian census]] data also suggests there is a positive correlation between abnormal sex ratio and better socio-economic status and literacy. This may be connected to the dowry system in India where dowry deaths occur when a girl is seen as a financial burden. Urban India has higher child sex ratio than rural India according to [[1991 Census of India|1991]], [[2001 Census of India|2001]] and [[2011 Census of India|2011]] Census data, implying higher prevalence of female foeticide in urban India. Similarly, child sex ratio greater than 115 boys per 100 girls is found in regions where the predominant majority is Muslim; furthermore "normal" child sex ratio of 104 to 106 boys per 100 girls are found in regions where the predominant majority is Hindu, Sikh or Christian. These data suggest that sex selection is a practice which takes place among some uneducated,poor sections or a particular religion of the Indian society.<ref name=cc2011/><ref name=wbhindia/>

There is an ongoing debate as to whether these high sex ratios are only caused by female foeticide or some of the higher ratio is explained by natural causes.<ref name=James-JournalofEndocrinology>{{cite journal|author=James W.H.|title=Hypothesis:Evidence that Mammalian Sex Ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormonal levels around the time of conception|journal=Journal of Endocrinology|volume=198|pages=3–15|date=July 2008|doi= 10.1677/JOE-07-0446|issue=1|pmid=18577567|doi-access=free}}</ref> The Indian government has passed [[Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994|Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act]] (PCPNDT) in 1994 to ban and punish prenatal sex screening and female foeticide. It is currently illegal in India to determine or disclose sex of the foetus to anyone. However, there are concerns that PCPNDT Act has been poorly enforced by authorities.<ref name="UNICEF India">{{cite web |url=http://www.unicef.org/india/media_3285.htm |title=UNICEF India|work=UNICEF}}</ref>

There is a strong son preference in India and this leads to a high sex ratio prioritizing male lives over female lives.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Sen|first=Amartya|date=2001|title=The Many Faces of Gender Inequality|url=http://www.unz.com/print/NewRepublic-2001sep17-00035/?View=AllYears&PDF=NewRepublic-2001sep17|journal=The New Republic|pages=35–39}}</ref> This graph depicts a typical Indian family's [[indifference curve]]s between wanting to have a daughter or a son. Most families find greater [[utility]] in having a son so the curves are higher up on the y axis. When having a female becomes more expensive (due to dowry prices, lack of financial return in the future, educational and health expenses) then the budget curve has to swing inward on the x axis. Even though the budget stays the same, it is relatively more expensive to have a girl than to have a boy. The [[substitution effect]] shows that people move from point A on the first indifference curve to point B on the second indifference curve. They move from an already low number of females due to social reasons to even fewer daughters than before due to the added financial liability of daughters being more expensive. The number of males grows and the contrasting increase and decrease in quantities results in a high sex ratio. This is based on the [[Intra-household bargaining|unitary model of the household]] where the household is seen as a single decision making entity under the same budget constraint.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Donni|first=Olivier|date=2011|title=Economic Approaches to Household Behavior: From the Unitary Model to Collective Decisions|url=https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_TGS_026_0067--economic-approaches-to-household.htm|journal=Work, Gender, and Societies|volume=26|pages=67–83}}</ref> However, the non-unitary model of households argues that people have different preferences in a family and are able to carry those out according to their level of bargaining power.<ref name=":0" /> In India, the unitary model is more likely to occur because of the patriarchal society that prioritizes male opinion and bargaining power in the household. This is not to say that all households follow this model, but enough of them do that it results in a high sex ratio.<ref name="Sen1990" />

One school of scholars suggested that female foeticide can be seen through history and cultural background. Generally, male babies were preferred because they provided manual labor and success the family [[Lineage (anthropology)|lineage]]. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children for a variety of social and economic reasons.<ref name="Goodkind">Goodkind, Daniel (1999). "Should Prenatal Sex Selection be Restricted?: Ethical Questions and Their Implications for Research and Policy". Population Studies 53 (1): 49–61</ref> A son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn and support the family; a daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off to another family, and so will not contribute financially to her parents. Female foeticide then, is a continuation in a different form, of a practice of [[female infanticide]] or withholding of postnatal health care for girls in certain households.<ref name="Gupta_2005">Das Gupta, Monica, [http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/emily.oster/papers/dasgupta.pdf "Explaining Asia's Missing Women": A New Look at the Data"], 2005</ref> Furthermore, in some cultures sons are expected to take care of their parents in their old age.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Mahalingam | first1 = R. | title = Culture, ecology, and beliefs about gender in son preference caste groups | doi = 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.01.004 | journal = Evolution and Human Behavior | volume = 28 | issue = 5 | pages = 319–329 | year = 2007 }}</ref> These factors are complicated by the effect of diseases on child sex ratio, where communicable and noncommunicable diseases affect males and females differently.<ref name="Gupta_2005" />

| Mizoram|| align=”center”| 12,017 || align=”center”| 11,882 || style="background: #ccffff;" align=”center”|

The [[Bride buying|imported brides]] are known as "paros" and are treated like slaves because they have no cultural, regional, or familial ties to their husbands before being brought into their homes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/06/female-foeticide-india-ticking-bomb-150629090758927.html|title=Female foeticide, India's 'ticking bomb'|last=Pandey|first=Sanjay|website=www.aljazeera.com|access-date=2018-03-05}}</ref> One of the field studies in Haryana revealed that more than 9000 married women are bought from other Indian states as imported brides.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women, Political Struggles and Gender Equality in South Asia|last=Alston|first=Margaret|publisher=Palgrave MacMillan|year=2014|isbn=978-1-137-39057-8}}</ref> This act also results in wife sharing and [[Polyandry in India|polyandry]] by family members in some areas of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Punjab, which maintains the gender imbalance if one family can make do with only one female.<ref name=":5" /> For example, the polyandrous Toda of Nilgiri Hills in southern India practiced female infanticide in order to maintain a certain demographic imbalance.<ref name=":5" />

The impact of Indian laws on female foeticide and its enforcement is unclear. [[United Nations Population Fund]] and India's National Human Rights Commission, in 2009, asked the Government of India to assess the impact of the law. The Public Health Foundation of India, an premier research organization in its 2010 report, claimed a lack of awareness about the Act in parts of India, inactive role of the Appropriate Authorities, ambiguity among some clinics that offer prenatal care services, and the role of a few medical practitioners in disregarding the law.<ref name=wbhindia/> The [[Ministry of Health and Family Welfare]] of India has targeted education and media advertisements to reach clinics and medical professionals to increase awareness. The Indian Medical Association has undertaken efforts to prevent prenatal sex selection by giving its members ''Beti Bachao'' (save the daughter) badges during its meetings and conferences.<ref name=wbhindia>[http://www.wbhealth.gov.in/download/IMPLEMENTATION%20OF%20THE%20PCPNDT%20ACT%20IN%20INDIA.pdf IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PCPNDT ACT IN INDIA - Perspectives and Challenges] Public Health Foundation of India, Supported by United Nations FPA (2010)</ref><ref name="auto">[http://jskvrc.gov.in/ipas/2.pdf MTP and PCPNDT Initiatives Report] Government of India (2011)</ref> However, a recent study by Nandi and Deolalikar (2013) argues that the 1994 PNDT Act may have had a small impact by preventing 106,000 female foeticides over one decade.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.02.007| title = Does a legal ban on sex-selective abortions improve child sex ratios? Evidence from a policy change in India| journal = Journal of Development Economics| volume = 103| pages = 216–228| year = 2013| last1 = Nandi | first1 = A. | last2 = Deolalikar | first2 = A. B. }}</ref>

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* [http://www.unicef.org/india/media_3285.htm UNICEF India]