Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Glaring Gap
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/25/india-census-alarming-sex-ratio-female-foeticide
India's census reveals a glaring gap: girls
India's census reveals a country obsessed by boys and sex-selection laws that no one will enforce. Continuing female foeticide explains why the child sex ratio is getting worse
• Families in India increasingly aborting girl babies
• Census of India website
• Families in India increasingly aborting girl babies
• Census of India website
India's child sex ratio has deteriorated in the past 10 years, now at 914 girls for per 1,000 boys; in 2001 the ratio was 927 per 1,000. Dumped female foetuses are also found regularly. Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images
In the world's largest democracy a massive crisis of missing girls is unfolding, according to India's 2011 census. The latest census shows that the gap between the number of girls per 1,000 boys up to the age of six has widened to 914, a decrease from 927 a decade ago, at the 2001 census. In a country where a large part of the population finds it hard to get access to toilets and clean drinking water, access to illegal foetal sex-selection procedures seems easier.
The girl child in India is falling prey to the profit-driven ultrasound industry and doctors who commit foeticide without compunction. The child sex ratio is emblematic of the status of women in the country.
More than a dozen female foetuses were found dumped in a city in eastern Bihar state recently, days before the damning child sex ratio was revealed. Although there has been a fall in the rate of population growth(pdf), awareness of family size is accompanied by a greater preference for boys – a trend seen across class and rural-urban divides.
Mumbai, India's commercial capital, boasts a ratio of 874 girls, one of the lowest in the country. Jhajjar district in the northern state of Haryana, could well be the capital of female foeticide, with a ratio of 774 girls to 1,000 boys – the state's ratio is 830, down from 861 recorded in the 2001 census. Regions that had more balanced sex ratios, such as the southern and eastern states, are now also registering this trend andresearch shows that even Indians overseas demonstrate similar sex ratios.
Sabu M George, an activist with 25 years' experience in the field, said: "There are highly organised vested interests, a powerful lobby of doctors and companies selling ultrasound machines that cater to the sex-determination market." Doctors in India make at least $200m a year by conducting illegal sex-selection procedures, he said.
During 1991, in the prosperous states of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, 5% of girls were eliminated. Ten years on, in 2001, this climbed to 10%-15%; and 7,000 fewer girls are born every day than ought to be, according to Unicef.
Legislation was enacted in 1994 – the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (Prohibition of Sex Selection Act or PNDT) – but that failed to act as a deterrent to potential parents and doctors. A public interest case was filed in 2000 by George and two NGOs, MASUMand CEHAT, citing the government's failure to the implement the law. In 2001, seven years after legislation was enacted, the supreme court directed state governments to enforce it, making special reference to Punjab, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. But in the past three years the relevant government committee has not met even once to take stock of the situation, George said.
While an estimated 15 million girls were wiped out – simply not born – in India over the last decade, the figure is 25 million in China, where the state's one-child policy has become a one-son policy.
Chinese ultrasound manufacturers also see India as their big market. Machines that were meant to be sold only to registered clinics are probably being sold to unauthorised entities. Activists have also criticised companies from the west, such as GE. The company points out that ultrasound is essential for many medical procedures, adding that, while buyers require valid certificates and must produce "affidavits stating that the equipment shall not be used for sex determination … GE's observation is that these laws are not routinely enforced."
And it is not just the makers of medical devices who are taking advantage of the situation. Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, for example, have all contributed to the problem. The 1994 law prohibits advertising sex-selection services, often for genetic determination of sex, but those corporations carried online advertising, sponsored links, for sex-selection services. Another public interest case was filed to challenge the online ads.
These are signs of the stunted evolution in the status of Indian women. Not surprisingly, India ranks a lowly 112 out of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index for 2010 (pdf).
The economic impact of women not contributing to society is clearly lost on many Indians, and the great Indian economic growth story has bypassed women's emancipation.
Natural selection would have yielded an additional 600,000 girls every year. This translates into 10 million potential brides after two decades. The horror of how this could unfold is best captured by a chilling, if slightly exaggerated, film called Mathrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women.
SEX RATIO DECLINING
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Decreasing sex ratio in country
Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women and Child Development in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on March 3 shared sex-ratio (females/ males) in the Country and State-wise, as per Census 1981, 1991 and 2001indicate that sex ratio has declined from 934 (as per 1981 census) to 927 ( as per 1991 census) and has increased to 933 (as per 2001 census). The reasons for high number of incidence of female foeticide in India include a deep rooted traditional son preference, continued practice of dowry and concern for safety of the girl child and exploitation and abuse of women and girl children. In order to curb female foeticide and improve the sex ratio, Government has adopted a multi-pronged strategy which includes legislative measures, advocacy, awareness generation and programmes for socio-economic empowerment of women.
Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, sex selective abortions are made punishable. The Government in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is responsible for administration of this Act and its implementation is the responsibility of the State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations. Further, foeticide is also punishable under Section 315 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or with fine, or with both. Legislations such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 seek to penalise the perpetrators of these social evils.
As a part of the measures taken to change the mind set of society, Government of India has been implementing on a pilot basis ‘Dhanalakshmi’, scheme for incentivising birth of the Girl Child. A number of States have been implementing their own schemes to incentivise the birth of a girl child and encourage families to place a premium on her education and development through Conditional Cash Transfer schemes.
Socio-economic empowerment of women is essential for making informed decisions and for change of the mind sets. The Government of India has undertaken a number of initiatives for this, such as Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP), The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA), National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM) and loans through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh. This should go a long way in empowering women and enable them to take decisions about the birth of children, their spacing, retain girl children and improve the nutritional and educational status.
To create national awareness on issues relating to girl child, in 2009, Ministry of Women and Child Development has declared January 24 as the National Girl Child Day. On this day, besides the Central Government, the State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations undertake advocacy measures to improve the status of girl child in their respective States/ Union Territories.
Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, sex selective abortions are made punishable. The Government in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is responsible for administration of this Act and its implementation is the responsibility of the State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations. Further, foeticide is also punishable under Section 315 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or with fine, or with both. Legislations such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 seek to penalise the perpetrators of these social evils.
As a part of the measures taken to change the mind set of society, Government of India has been implementing on a pilot basis ‘Dhanalakshmi’, scheme for incentivising birth of the Girl Child. A number of States have been implementing their own schemes to incentivise the birth of a girl child and encourage families to place a premium on her education and development through Conditional Cash Transfer schemes.
Socio-economic empowerment of women is essential for making informed decisions and for change of the mind sets. The Government of India has undertaken a number of initiatives for this, such as Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP), The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA), National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM) and loans through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh. This should go a long way in empowering women and enable them to take decisions about the birth of children, their spacing, retain girl children and improve the nutritional and educational status.
To create national awareness on issues relating to girl child, in 2009, Ministry of Women and Child Development has declared January 24 as the National Girl Child Day. On this day, besides the Central Government, the State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations undertake advocacy measures to improve the status of girl child in their respective States/ Union Territories.
SON PREFERANCE
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Girls Pay Price for India's Preference for Boys
Voice of America - By Steve Herman New Delhi 05 March 2007
In India - the world's second most populous nation (after China) - there is a shortage of girls. A large part of the problem is a perception that girls are a financial burden. This preference for boys has led to the abortion of millions of female fetuses, or in some cases, even the murder of girl babies. VOA's Steve Herman in New Delhi reports.
Indian school girls (file photo)The girls of India are disappearing. On average there are only about 930 girls for every 1,000 boys. Boys tend to be preferred because they carry on the family name. But families here also fear the financial burden of girls - when it comes time to pay huge traditional dowries to their daughters' future husbands upon marriage. Sabu George, an academic and activist, says modern medicine makes it possible for Indian couples to now know the sex of their child before it is born.
"In our country ultrasound is becoming a weapon of mass destruction. Instead of saving lives, what we are finding is that millions and millions of girls are being eliminated before birth," she said. Using ultrasound tests to determine a fetus's gender is illegal in India. But Corinne Woods of the U.N. Children's Fund says that has hardly stopped the practice.
"What's known is that act is being flouted. You go in for an ultrasound and you're handed a pink candy or a blue candy," she said.
Woods says the pink candy is frequently the signal to request an abortion - especially among India's middle and upper classes, where activist Sabu George sees even more discrimination against women than among the lowest classes. "Improved socio-economic status of women seems to be becoming very, very anti-girl. In part because the most educated families have the least number of children and the smallest number of children are obtained by eliminating girls," George said.
Woman looks on during rally against female focticide in New Delhi (file photo)Researchers say one out of every 25 female fetuses in India is aborted - an estimated half million a year.
Parents who cannot afford expensive tests may take matters into their own hands. In some rural areas girl babies have been reported to be killed immediately after birth - strangled, suffocated or buried alive. And, often, girls who survive infancy die quite young activists say because they are given less food and medical care than their brothers. Those who do survive will generally get less of an education - in both quality and quantity - than the boys in the family.
Corinne Woods at UNICEF says her organization and others hope to replicate the success they have had with educating villagers about malnutrition to get them to change their attitudes about girls.
"Creating a culture at the village level of the value of girls is key," she said. "And also creating a culture whereby the women's group in the village is saying 'don't do this.' So it's peer pressure."
In the central Indian city of Bhopal a gynecologist and janitor at a hospital were arrested recently following the discovery in a pit behind the medical facility of the remains of an estimated 400 female fetuses and newborn babies. India's government is proposing to set up orphanages to raise unwanted girls, hoping that will cut down on the number of abortions and infanticides. But some experts express little hope, saying the idea has been tried before and in many of the orphanages the girls suffered terrible neglect.
Researcher Sabu George predicts that despite political and legal measures, attitude changes will be slow in coming. "As long as this indifference continues our numbers of missing girls will continue to increase. And in the next 10 years we are very likely to exceed China in terms of having the country with the largest number of girls eliminated before birth," George said.
Social scientists are ringing the alarm about the long-term ramifications. They say history has shown societies with a surplus of young men who have no hope of marriage suffer from instability and surges in crime and violence.
In India - the world's second most populous nation (after China) - there is a shortage of girls. A large part of the problem is a perception that girls are a financial burden. This preference for boys has led to the abortion of millions of female fetuses, or in some cases, even the murder of girl babies. VOA's Steve Herman in New Delhi reports.
Indian school girls (file photo)The girls of India are disappearing. On average there are only about 930 girls for every 1,000 boys. Boys tend to be preferred because they carry on the family name. But families here also fear the financial burden of girls - when it comes time to pay huge traditional dowries to their daughters' future husbands upon marriage. Sabu George, an academic and activist, says modern medicine makes it possible for Indian couples to now know the sex of their child before it is born.
"In our country ultrasound is becoming a weapon of mass destruction. Instead of saving lives, what we are finding is that millions and millions of girls are being eliminated before birth," she said. Using ultrasound tests to determine a fetus's gender is illegal in India. But Corinne Woods of the U.N. Children's Fund says that has hardly stopped the practice.
"What's known is that act is being flouted. You go in for an ultrasound and you're handed a pink candy or a blue candy," she said.
Woods says the pink candy is frequently the signal to request an abortion - especially among India's middle and upper classes, where activist Sabu George sees even more discrimination against women than among the lowest classes. "Improved socio-economic status of women seems to be becoming very, very anti-girl. In part because the most educated families have the least number of children and the smallest number of children are obtained by eliminating girls," George said.
Woman looks on during rally against female focticide in New Delhi (file photo)Researchers say one out of every 25 female fetuses in India is aborted - an estimated half million a year.
Parents who cannot afford expensive tests may take matters into their own hands. In some rural areas girl babies have been reported to be killed immediately after birth - strangled, suffocated or buried alive. And, often, girls who survive infancy die quite young activists say because they are given less food and medical care than their brothers. Those who do survive will generally get less of an education - in both quality and quantity - than the boys in the family.
Corinne Woods at UNICEF says her organization and others hope to replicate the success they have had with educating villagers about malnutrition to get them to change their attitudes about girls.
"Creating a culture at the village level of the value of girls is key," she said. "And also creating a culture whereby the women's group in the village is saying 'don't do this.' So it's peer pressure."
In the central Indian city of Bhopal a gynecologist and janitor at a hospital were arrested recently following the discovery in a pit behind the medical facility of the remains of an estimated 400 female fetuses and newborn babies. India's government is proposing to set up orphanages to raise unwanted girls, hoping that will cut down on the number of abortions and infanticides. But some experts express little hope, saying the idea has been tried before and in many of the orphanages the girls suffered terrible neglect.
Researcher Sabu George predicts that despite political and legal measures, attitude changes will be slow in coming. "As long as this indifference continues our numbers of missing girls will continue to increase. And in the next 10 years we are very likely to exceed China in terms of having the country with the largest number of girls eliminated before birth," George said.
Social scientists are ringing the alarm about the long-term ramifications. They say history has shown societies with a surplus of young men who have no hope of marriage suffer from instability and surges in crime and violence.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
ARTICLE ON F F
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Decreasing Sex Ratio and Pregnant Women's Attitude Towards Female Foeticide
Discussion article - The purpose to put this article on blog was to make available the relevant information in public domain and to invoke discussions on its findings..
Nursing Journal of India, Apr 2005 by Sarna, Kamla
A descriptive study to assess the knowledge about decreasing sex ratio and attitude towards female foeticide of pregnant women attending antenatal OPD in a selected hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab. The Constitution of India guarantees equality to women. It empowers the states to adopt measures for affirmative discrimination in favor of women and also impose a fundamental duty on its citizens to uphold the dignity of women but despite all this, India's deep rooted "sons only" ethos continues and girls and women face inequity and inequality everywhere. They are devalued as human beings from the day they are born. But what is worse is that they are even denied the right to be born, if their families do not wish them to be born.
New developments in medical technology have helped to improve health care for millions of people. One cheap and widely available test can determine the sex of the child. There is gross misuse of reproductive technology in a society characterized by a strong bias against a female child. The census report of 2001 presents a grim reality indicating an imbalance in the ratio of female and male. It is a common fact that the sex ratio in India is lower than international standards i.e. sex ratio in India is 933 while the world average is 986 (Dutta, 2001 ).
Number of causes are responsible for the continuous decline in the sex ratio e.g. poverty, illiteracy, culture and preference for male child etc. The discrepancy in the sex ratio in the lowest age group is found in most prosperous areas of IndiaPunjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Chandigarh. All these states have sex ratio of less than 900 females to 1000 males below the age of six.
The declining sex ratio could result in a demographic and social disaster. In such a situation it is the primary duty of the health professionals to provide proper information to the general public about the declining sex ratio and its affects in India. The present study was undertaken in order to determine to what extent the pregnant women are oriented to the actual problem of declining sex ratio and also to ascertain their attitude towards female foeticide.
Objectives of the Study
1. To assess the knowledge of pregnant women about decreasing sex ratio.
2. To assess the attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide.
3. To find out the relationship of attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide with variables i.e. age, education, religion, occupation, married for years, family income, type of family, residence and source of information etc.
Materials and Methods
A descriptive study approach was used to conduct the study, which was conducted in Antenatal OPD of Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. Purposive random sampling technique was used for selection of sample. The population consisted of 50 pregnant women attending OPD. The time period of study was from 1.6.2002 to 15.7.2002. The technique and methods used were structured questionnaire was developed based on review of literature. It ' consisted of three parts.
The first part consisted of items for obtaining personal information about age, education, religion, occupation, married for years, family income, and type of family and source of information. The second part consisted of statements to find our knowledge of clients about sex ratio, decreasing ratio, causes of declining sex ratio and affects and problems related to female foeticide. The statements were developed for the respondents to respond on 'Yes' or 'No' or 'Do not know' basis. Each correct response was given one score and wrong response was not given any score. Hence maximum score was 20 for twenty statements and minimum score was zero.
Assessing the attitude is an important aspect because attitude , may differ from individual to individual; attitude is concerned with the beliefs, interests, ideas of person and also to the behavior of the person. The third part deals with the statements regarding assessment of attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide. The statements were developed for the respondents to respond on five point Likert scale i.e. strongly agree, , agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. There were total 20 statements, which include 10 negative and 10 positive statements. For positive statements, the responses qualified by giving score as SA - 5, agree -4, U-3, DA - 2, SDA- 1. Negative statements scored reversely. Hence maximum score was 100 and minimum score 20.
Findings and Discussions
Sample Characteristics:
Majority of the clients were in the age group of 21-30 years (72%) followed by 24% in the age group of 3 1 -40( years and only 4% above 40 years. 48% of them were the academic qualification of plus two and above, 30% were illiterate and 22% had passed 10th class. Most of women were Hindus (48%), followed by Sikhs 32%, Christians 14% and Muslims only 6%. Majority of women (76%), were housewives and 24% were professionals. Maximum number of women (66%) were married for 1-9 years, 30% of women married for 10-19 years and 4% married for more than 20 years. 54% of them were having family income 5001-10000, 36% had income less than 5000 and only 10% were with income more than 10,000. Most of women (72%) resided in urban area and 28% belonged to rural areas. For 62% source of information was mass media (TV, newspapers and radio etc.) and 38% got information from rela-tives
Nursing Journal of India, Apr 2005 by Sarna, Kamla
A descriptive study to assess the knowledge about decreasing sex ratio and attitude towards female foeticide of pregnant women attending antenatal OPD in a selected hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab. The Constitution of India guarantees equality to women. It empowers the states to adopt measures for affirmative discrimination in favor of women and also impose a fundamental duty on its citizens to uphold the dignity of women but despite all this, India's deep rooted "sons only" ethos continues and girls and women face inequity and inequality everywhere. They are devalued as human beings from the day they are born. But what is worse is that they are even denied the right to be born, if their families do not wish them to be born.
New developments in medical technology have helped to improve health care for millions of people. One cheap and widely available test can determine the sex of the child. There is gross misuse of reproductive technology in a society characterized by a strong bias against a female child. The census report of 2001 presents a grim reality indicating an imbalance in the ratio of female and male. It is a common fact that the sex ratio in India is lower than international standards i.e. sex ratio in India is 933 while the world average is 986 (Dutta, 2001 ).
Number of causes are responsible for the continuous decline in the sex ratio e.g. poverty, illiteracy, culture and preference for male child etc. The discrepancy in the sex ratio in the lowest age group is found in most prosperous areas of IndiaPunjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Chandigarh. All these states have sex ratio of less than 900 females to 1000 males below the age of six.
The declining sex ratio could result in a demographic and social disaster. In such a situation it is the primary duty of the health professionals to provide proper information to the general public about the declining sex ratio and its affects in India. The present study was undertaken in order to determine to what extent the pregnant women are oriented to the actual problem of declining sex ratio and also to ascertain their attitude towards female foeticide.
Objectives of the Study
1. To assess the knowledge of pregnant women about decreasing sex ratio.
2. To assess the attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide.
3. To find out the relationship of attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide with variables i.e. age, education, religion, occupation, married for years, family income, type of family, residence and source of information etc.
Materials and Methods
A descriptive study approach was used to conduct the study, which was conducted in Antenatal OPD of Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. Purposive random sampling technique was used for selection of sample. The population consisted of 50 pregnant women attending OPD. The time period of study was from 1.6.2002 to 15.7.2002. The technique and methods used were structured questionnaire was developed based on review of literature. It ' consisted of three parts.
The first part consisted of items for obtaining personal information about age, education, religion, occupation, married for years, family income, and type of family and source of information. The second part consisted of statements to find our knowledge of clients about sex ratio, decreasing ratio, causes of declining sex ratio and affects and problems related to female foeticide. The statements were developed for the respondents to respond on 'Yes' or 'No' or 'Do not know' basis. Each correct response was given one score and wrong response was not given any score. Hence maximum score was 20 for twenty statements and minimum score was zero.
Assessing the attitude is an important aspect because attitude , may differ from individual to individual; attitude is concerned with the beliefs, interests, ideas of person and also to the behavior of the person. The third part deals with the statements regarding assessment of attitude of pregnant women towards female foeticide. The statements were developed for the respondents to respond on five point Likert scale i.e. strongly agree, , agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. There were total 20 statements, which include 10 negative and 10 positive statements. For positive statements, the responses qualified by giving score as SA - 5, agree -4, U-3, DA - 2, SDA- 1. Negative statements scored reversely. Hence maximum score was 100 and minimum score 20.
Findings and Discussions
Sample Characteristics:
Majority of the clients were in the age group of 21-30 years (72%) followed by 24% in the age group of 3 1 -40( years and only 4% above 40 years. 48% of them were the academic qualification of plus two and above, 30% were illiterate and 22% had passed 10th class. Most of women were Hindus (48%), followed by Sikhs 32%, Christians 14% and Muslims only 6%. Majority of women (76%), were housewives and 24% were professionals. Maximum number of women (66%) were married for 1-9 years, 30% of women married for 10-19 years and 4% married for more than 20 years. 54% of them were having family income 5001-10000, 36% had income less than 5000 and only 10% were with income more than 10,000. Most of women (72%) resided in urban area and 28% belonged to rural areas. For 62% source of information was mass media (TV, newspapers and radio etc.) and 38% got information from rela-tives
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