Impact Of Selective Abortion In India - Essay Example

IMPACT OF SELECTIVE ABORTION IN INDIA Introduction Sex-selective abortion, which also referrers to the son preference or the female deselecting are the methods applied in a sex-selection, practiced in cultures (areas) where a boy child is valued over a girl child. Historical Context Although the phenomena of sex selective abortion emerged recently, it is also possible to trace its roots in the ages of female infanticide. Initially, infanticide was documented by officials from Britain, in lately in the eighteenth century. British held that giving birth to a girl was a serious calamity. The occurrence of infanticide prompted the government of Britain to enact and pass the Infanticide Act (1870), making infanticide an illegal practice. However, a census survey carried out in 1871 revealed that the infanticide’s effectiveness had caused a significant abnormal sex ratio; 940 women to 1000 men. Because the realized ratio reflected an inverse, having been compared with the observation made in England, India invited a lot of speculation. Other countries like England reflected a statistic ratio with women outnumbering men. Some suggestions were raised, with an Indian commissioner saying that the increase of male birth is proportionate to the climatic warmth. The commissioner’s statement is drawn from the British government, 1870, Miller’s quotation, in 1981. Other investigators realized the Indian ratio was as a result of the higher mortality of women than that of men. Causes of women deaths included natural causes like childbirth; unnatural causes on the other hand included infanticide and “sati,” where “sati” a widow throws herself on the funeral pyre of the husband. The subsequent census revealed that there was no improvement on the Indian ratio despite the attempts implemented. The Infanticide Act faced difficulties in enforcement, since most births used to occur in homes, yet vital registration was uncommon. Autopsies were not carried out on corpses in exception to the unusual instances where the police notification was done. The high infant mortality with the affiliation of natural causes gave room for possible infants to be suffocated, poisoned, or even starved yet this did not initiate further suspicions. Furthermore, since the practice is widespread accepted, it is vague if one would be morally compelled to a point of reporting suspicious incidents. When the government of Britain realized how the legislation was limited, British put extra effort in curtailing the infanticide incidences. There was the establishment of a dowry fund from the government which would aid families in destitute of feeling as though cannot afford another girl child. The government together with the princely families held a meeting in which the government threatened the respective families with fines and imprisonment. There was a possibility of the government’s effect in curtailing the infanticide although many people had a feeling that infanticide was mainly supplanted by subtle neglect; the girl child would receive a lesser attention compared to the attention bestowed on a boy child. She is also poorly fed and suffers from the cold as well as chills - one of the greatest contributors of child mortality in India. The act of infanticide amongst female became the other policies to be implemented by the British government. These policies were put in place following the uncertainty of legal retribution. Sequentially, the prevalence of infanticide reflected a drastic change following the data collected on the census conducted in 1981. There was continuous decline in sex ratio in 1981, indicating a slight improvement to 934 from 934 women per 1000 men. The improvement was because of the improving women status as evidenced in births of a number of several female groups. Better health care as well as a fall in maternal mortality, in a span of economic development. Optimistically, projections were made concerning the ratio of 1000 men to 944 women in 1993. Sex Selective Abortion Methods The further sex ratio declination was partially contributed by the introduction of prenatal determination of sex of the unborn kin 1970’s. There was a major evolution of technology related to parental testing, which was basically introduced to inform parents regarding the possible genetic disorder. The technology, however, was used by some Indian professionals to meet other needs; to facilitate sex determination in order to help prospective parents abort female fetuses selectively despite their genetic health. Sex selective abortion (female feticide) involves two-steps process. Firstly, sex of the fetus is established through ultrasound, amniocentesis, or sampling of chorionic villus. The second step involves therapeutic abortion. Therapeutic abortion was made legal in 1971, under the act of the Medical termination of pregnancy in India. The activity is facilitated in government facilities free of charge. Amniocentesis involves sucking of the fluid having fetal cells, which is extracted when a catheter is inserted to reach the sac that surrounds the fetus – performed between the fifteenth and the seventeenth week of gestation. Although chorionic villus sampling required more technical skills, compared to the amniocentesis, it has an advantage in that the performance can be administered early in pregnancy – week 10 of gestation. This allows safer and earlier abortion, if preferred. Chorionic villus is used in many hospitals and clinics, in India, although the cost is considerably higher than amniocentesis; the strategy is chiefly used by the wealthy. The fact that ultrasound does not apply until trimester two of pregnancy makes the method unpopular in facilitating selective sex determination. Additionally, the level of accuracy is poorer even at that late stage of pregnancy, as compared to the chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis. However, use of ultrasound is the simplest method of determining the sex of the fetus in India. A number of entrepreneurs have put in place traveling vans with the potential of conducting the procedure. Indian government, in 1994, passed the Act of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT), which sought to control the application of ultrasound which was cheap and widely used in sex determination. This would in turn reduce the level discriminative sex abortion in India. However, various stakeholders like parents, doctors, law enforcement, as well as the government usually despised the PNDT Act. To respond to the noted ignorance of these stakeholders, the Indian Supreme court did not rest, but it strived to see the Act implemented with all jurisdictions. The Supreme Court introduced the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in 1998. It consequently issued to the state and Central governments, specific and clear directives. The directives ordered every other government official to implement and eventually enforce the ban regarding sex selective abortion. The rulings of the Supreme Court thrust the deal concerning discriminative sex selective abortion, generating the collective consciousness in public of India. Initiatives of implementation and enforcement were thereby spurred. Violation of this Act has led to sanctioning of such violators of the law. Two doctors have faced the law due to substantive Act violation. In Punjab District, the Chief Magistrate has ignited a lot of fear that the number of girl birth will be on the rise. However, sex selective abortion is still practiced prevalently in India. Sex Selective Abortion Practice Tests conducted in determining prenatal sex were widely used by mothers with the intention of getting rid of female children. Although infanticide was widely practiced, those the involved parties used to do it with guilt; rituals were however, established with the aim of cleansing them from sin An example of such a ritual is that a girl child would be killed and buried in the very room she was born, and eventually the floor is plastered with cowdung implying purification. A village priest would take food from that room, as a sign of bearing the sin of child murder upon himself. Because many Indians hold the belief that it is until the end of the second trimester of gestation that the soul gets into the fetus, sex selective abortion cleanses the sin and guilt and thus the activity is accepted morally. Shortly after the introduction in 1970’s, discriminative sex abortion emerged a big business in India. Billboards would seek to persuade people to invest 500 rupees now, and end up saving 50,000 rupees later. The motive was to encourage parents to adopt female fetus’s abortion and end up saving future dowries Sex determination was widely promoted even at the train stations for only 70 rupees. Following the stiff competition amongst the clinics, prices for the abortion service were thus affordable by the middle class. Between 1982and 1987, the number of clinics facilitating sex determination of the unborn grew to 248 from less than 10 in Bombay alone. More alarming statistics were realized regarding the centers in Bombay; out of 8000 number of abortions carried out in six hospitals, led by amniocentesis, the terminated female fetuses were 7900. The recent researches have drawn a lot of interest, revealing that the Indian girl child is still under threat much more when unborn, and even after birth. Statistics have thus been generated following the analysis of the phenomenon of infanticide. Below are some of the graphical representations of the falling number of girls as well as the worst reached ratios of boys to girls in India. The 2011 census indicates a critical decline in girls’ population, below seven years of age. Activists in India raise an alarm, that about eight million female foetus might have been terminated in the last ten years’ span. In 1961, Indian population reflected a ratio of 1000 boys to 976 girls’ distribution. Today’s figure indicates a decline to dismal value of 914 girls. Even if, the number of women is improving because of factors like expectancy, the ratio of boys to girls represents a worst case scenario, falling just after China in global statistics. Factors like infanticide, neglect and abuse of the girl child come into play in explaining such a worst scenario. Implications of Sex Selective Abortion Sex selective abortion has serious consequences where practiced, as observed form the statistics taken from India. Initially, the According to the 1991 census, approximately 35 to 45 million Indian women were missing as a result of increased mortality rate of women and decreased female birth rate. This implication had an impact on men since the number of men was more than that of women and thus a shortage of marriage partners. This, in turn, would cause girls to be married while very at a younger age. The increased incidences of child bride further contributed to poor women status; few of the women would finish their studies, or even develop themselves in acquiring job skills before entering into marriage. Young brides, as well as their children, have a higher vulnerability of suffering from mortality and morbidity which are childbirth associated. Surplus of unmarried men in the Indian society also accelerated cases of sexual violence against Indian women. Although polygamous setups are illegal in India, history has it that a lady would be married of to several brothers. In India, women contribute a lot in the economy since they form the largest labour force; it is thus uncertain on the economic and social outcome, could strategies of reducing the sex ratio be implemented. In China, having a boy child was regarded as having the best pension for a peasant and sop every effort would be embarked to ensure that such pensions are much more acquired at the expense of a girl child. Despite the political diversity, human rights concerning women have been widely violated throughout North Africa and Middle East. Routinely, many governments suppress civil society through tough strategies like freedom restriction in interacting with the press; freedom of assembly and that of expression. Although such restrictions affect both genders, women are adversely affected by the additional gender-specific rights violation. Such specific rights including penal, family, and citizenship laws all over the region. Discriminations in legal systems undermine the full personhood of a woman as well as equal participation within the society. Additionally, legal injustices expose women to suffer violence mostly from men. It is worth noting that, in countries like Egypt, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon are ruled by religion-based principals. Many of the laws applying in these countries address women as minors under the guardianship of eternity regarding the male family members. Decision making in a family is the exclusive role of men, who by default enjoy legal status as the “household heads.” The established family courts support these notions in the Middle East and the North African regions. These courts help in enforcing male’s primacy in the power of decision making, as bestowed in him. According to the” Listverse,” website hosting articles, there are ten most extreme examples concerning gender inequality, which is practiced in the world today. Some of these injustices are as discussed below. The first inequality is that women have been denied right to divorce. While husbands are at liberty to divorce their spouses without difficulties, wives face an extremely limited access to divorce. Women face legal, social and economic challenges while pursuing divorce processes. Secondly, women are prone to violence. The vulnerability woman to violence has been contributed by the existence of discriminative legal rights (justice systems). The third extreme of society against women is the clothing requirement. A militant group, Lashkar-e-Jabar, in 2001, raised a demand on the Muslim women from Kashir to wear burgars (garments to cover their clothes, head to toe). Additionally, the group demanded that Sikh and Hindu women should observe that manner of dressing to maintain their identity. Conclusion The only amicable way to stop sex determination as well as discriminative (selective) sex abortion in India can be via a multi-faceted approach which transforms the mindset of the society. The approach should manage see the society shift from a platform of devaluing women, to a society that regards women as equal stakeholders in the very society. Stakeholders in this context include the medical industry, NGOs, law enforcers, the law courts, regular citizens and religious leaders. However, the law enforcement holds the ultimate responsibility in ensuring that all the recommended statutes and sanctions are implemented accordingly. Failure to exercise the law implies that Indian girl child will continue to be threatened before and after her life on earth. Implementation of the law however, would ensure that the girl child enjoys the right to life – right from the womb. Work Cited Hu, Luojia. "Does Sex?Selective Abortion Improve Girls’ Well?Being?" Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Sept. 2010. Retrieved no 27th October 2011 from http://www.hec.unil.ch/documents/seminars/deep/316.pdf. Jones, Adam. "Gendercide Watch: Female Infanticide." Gendercide Watch - Main Page. Dec. 2000. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html. Lemoine, Kristi. "GENDER DISCRIMINATION FUELS SEX SELECTIVE ABORTION:" Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://www.luc.edu/ministry/pdfs/conference%20docs/CallingToJusticeConferenceFeb232008TanaghoLemoine.pdf. Rushafan. "10 Extreme Examples of GenderA Inequality." Top 10 Lists - Listverse. Listverse, 20 Nov. 2008. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://listverse.com/2008/11/20/10-extreme-examples-of-gender-inequality. Sullivan, Tim. "Pakistani Defence Forum India And Female Infanticide. Shocking Figures." Pakistani Defence Forum (Powered by Invision Power Board). News.Yahoo.com, 13 Apr. 2008. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://forum.pakistanidefence.com/lofiversion/index.php/t56205.html. Varanasi, Kedar Ghat. "Sexual Paradox: The Girl Child." Dhushara. Feb. 2000. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://www.dhushara.com/paradoxhtm/girlchild.htm. Patel, Rita. "The Practice of Sex Selective Abortion in India: May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons." Department of Maternal and Child Health. Retrieved on 27th October 2011 from http://cgi.unc.edu/uploads/media_items/the-practice-of-sex-selective-abortion-in-india-may-you-be-the-mother-of-a-hundred-sons.original.pdf. Read More