Really killing female fetuses in the womb is the most lucrative business in some parts of the world. India will surely come at the top of the list. Ten million female fetuses have been destroyed in the country in the last 20 years. 99% of the time, it happened because couples do not want to give birth to a female baby. As a result, now in India, the number of girls is decreasing against the number of boys. Today, I read a touching report in Daily Mail and I am quoting from the report here:
" Even by the most conservative estimates, sex-selective abortion in India now accounts for the termination of some ten million female foetuses over the past 20 years. That means that each year a staggering half a million girls have been prevented from being born.
‘This is the world’s biggest genocide ever,’ says Chetan Sharma, founder of the Delhi-based organisation Datamation, which campaigns against female foeticide. According to India’s 2001 census, the number of nought to six-year-old girls per 1,000 boys was 927, a dramatic dip from 962 in 1981.
‘The future is frightening. Over the next five years we could see more than a million foetuses eliminated every year,’ says Dr Sabu George, who has charted the problem. ‘At this pace we’ll soon have no girls born in the country. We don’t know where it will stop.’"
Indian government passed a law in 1994 and banned the test of determining the gender of the fetus in the womb. However, because of a high demand, there are many doctors and clinics that would not only do this test but also carry out abortions. Some women have 5-6 times of such abortions and in extreme cases the number rises to 9-10. The doctors charge as little as 100$ to carry out the abortion and the fee increases depending on the maturity of the pregnancy of the woman. Thus killing female fetus has turned into a multi million dollar industry. I have nothing against these doctors as they are just supplying their service to meet the popular demand. If you want to get angry with the doctors then before that you should feel angrier against the families who do this kind of bad acts.
Unfortunately, Indian government is doing hardly anything significant to stop this business. Well, since it is a very big social problem in which thousands of families are involved, the government is a bit helpless to act tough too. The main root of the problem is in the attitude of the society towards girls in India. Most Indians view girls as a burden and they have to pay a huge dowry to the bridegroom's family during the time of their daughter's marriage. India is becoming modern and more and more people are getting educated but this attitude is not changing. So, thousands of couples are going for the short cut route- killing a female fetus.
This blog is about Indian business and I am just worried about the economic consequences of having an imbalanced society. It will surely lead India to economic and social disaster sooner or later. You do not have to a scholar to understand it.
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» Nepal: Growing Business of Sex Selection from SouthAsiaBiz
Killing female fetuses is indeed a big business in India. In fact, nearly 10 million female fetuses have been destroyed in India in the last two decade. Until now, this was not an important issue in Nepal. However, things... [Read More]
Tracked on: October 29, 2007 2:54 PM | Permalink to Trackback