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Women and girls face inequity and inequality everywhere. But in our
country they are devalued as human beings from the day they are born.
They are even denied the right to be born if their families do not wish them to be
born and many families do not wish their womenfolk to deliver baby daughters.
In the 1901 census , the sex ratio was 1,072 women for every 1,000
men in India.
The sex ratio, or the number of females for a thousand males, fell to 927 according to the 1991 census, as compared to 972 per 1,000 in the 1961 census.
2001 census shows the sex ratio as
933. The sex ratio of 933 to 1000 shown by the 2001 census in India is among the lowest in the whole world.
In states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana , Punjab and Rajasthan the sex ratio has plummeted to around 850 women for every 1,000 men.
In specific communities of Bihar and Rajasthan the ratio is a mere 600 females for 1,000 males.
These figures eloquently tell us a ghastly and gory story of the mysterious disappearance of millions of women ( 40-50
million) in few years from India. It indicates that the social malaise of female foeticide and infanticide is rampant in our country, even as we
boast for our economic progress and preparing to become a
superpower.
It is evident that foetal sexing is widely done in India, particularly in the
Hindi-speaking belt, comprising Bihar, U.P., Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and
Maharashtra. Even among the privileged upper middle and upper classes, where the resources for comfortable upbringing are not a problem, the second girl child is aborted in nearly 20 per cent of the cases, and the third girl child in 80 per cent of the pregnancies.
The use of modern technology to determine the sex of an unborn child - and
then abort if it is found to be female - has only been popularised in the 1990s.
Apprehending misuse of sex determination tests, Indian parliament had passed a law forbidding pre-natal diagnosis for determining the sex of the unborn child. But effective implementation of this law is woefully wanting.
Foeticide occurs in a grey legal area in India, where abortion is legal.
The Pre conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act came into effect in 1994 and was amended in 2003.
A noted gynaecologist Dr Sharda Jain presented
some alarming facts in her keynote address on "Female Foeticide Continues Unabated: Something Urgent Needs to be Done" at the regional workshop on "Female
Foeticide/Infanticide" jointly organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and UNICEF.
She said that at least 50 lakh female foeticide operations are conducted every year in the country as against an official assessment of 20 lakhs cases, Dr Jain said warning that this would severely upset the gender ratio.
PGD (Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis) through in-vitro fertilisation technique would also be an area exploited to avoid a female child in the near future, she predicted.
"We are fighting tooth-and-nail to create awareness among the medical fraternity so that doctors do not collude with parents seeking sex-determination tests for the purposes of female foeticide," said
Dr. Shardha Jain.
In a show of unity, several religious leaders assembled
at New Delhi on June 24, 2006 and pledged to launch a nationwide movement for the abolition of female
foeticide. Condemning the increasing ``inhuman and shameful'' practice of female
foeticide, they said: ``At this national convention of religious leaders, we all take oath that we would use all resources at our command to propagate to the masses to shun the atrocious act of female foeticide in our country.'' The National Convention of Religious Leaders on Abolition of Female Foeticide and Infanticide was organised by the Indian Medical Association, the UNICEF and the National Commission for Women in the context of the alarming decline of female population, as indicated in the latest Census.
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