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FEMINISM, FEMALE FETICIDE & TRADITIONAL INDIAN 'CULTURE

By Dr Maya Jacob

Consultant Dermatologist for Appolo Hospital Bangalore

Batch 1975



The Feminist Movement has by and large been 'pro-choice'. Women were told
that they had the right to choose whether to continue a pregnancy or abort
the unborn baby since they owned their own babies and no one else had any
business telling them what to do.



In India, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of 1971 made
abortion legal for medical indications up to 20 weeks of gestation (which
could be extended to 24 weeks if the life of the mother was endangered by
the pregnancy). In *1961*, the child sex ratio in India was *976 girls for
every 1000 boys*. Twenty years after abortion became legal, the ratio became
*945 girls for every 1000 boys (1991 census)* and in *2001* it dropped
further to *927 girls per 1000 boys*. In some regions like Punjab, this
ratio was found to be *793 girls per 1000 boys in 2001!*



The decline in the birth rate of girls became noticeable in the 1980s and
'90s and many articles and books were written about it, e.g., Gita
Aravamudan's "Disappearing Daughters – The Tragedy of Female Feticide." The
cause for this social pathology was obvious – girls are considered 'paraaya
dhan' whose birth brought no benefit to the family but caused great expense
in the form of large marriage feasts and dowry. It was not surprising to
find families killing their unborn female babies with the support of the
obliging sex determination laboratories and obstetricians. The Feminist
Movement was up in arms to stop this massacre of the female sex and 'The Pre
Natal Diagnostic Techniques – Regulation and Prevention of Misuse- Act" was
passed by Parliament in 1991. This made it illegal to use an ultrasound scan
to determine the sex of a fetus and communicate this to the parents. The
problem with this is that unless this is communicated in writing, there is
no evidence of the communication, so no prosecution can be made. It is easy
to say, "He's a healthy fetus" or "She's a healthy fetus" and even easier in
Indian languages where even the verb used  indicates the gender of the
child!



The fetus has to be quite big to determine the gender by ultrasound –
usually at least 18 weeks, and in India abortion becomes illegal after 20
weeks. Abortions after 12 weeks are much more hazardous. The abortionists
cannot fool themselves about what they are doing – they have to crush the
baby's head in order to bring it out of the uterus and most of them send the
'patients' to more ruthless colleagues who are ready to do the most
repulsive things when paid enough.



Amniocentesis – a procedure where cells from the amniotic fluid are
collected using ultrasound guidance and tested for the sex of the fetus -
would give an earlier sex determination, but there are fewer laboratories
that offer this technique which is expensive and also carries a risk.



However passing a law in Parliament does not seem to have reduced the rate
of female feticide – every day an estimated 2000 healthy female fetuses are
killed in India. What can be done? The chief thing to be done is to empower
women. Three states/union territories in India have child sex ratios
comparable to that in the developed world – Kerala, Pondicherry and
Lakshwadeep – and the empowerment of women may have played a role in this.
Good healthcare for women, making it easier for women to file complaints
about domestic abuse and harassment, promoting a strong code of ethics for
doctors and medical personnel, and enforcing the existing laws may help, but
the problem is more of a social disease than a legal problem.

      Recently Pramod Mutalik and the Sri Rama Sene has become notorious for
bashing up young women in Mangalore who had the audacity to visit pubs-
something against their notion of how an Indian woman should behave. One
Hindu girl was abused for talking to a Muslim boy in a public bus-the boy
was physically assaulted.. Every year we read of girls who are assaulted for
not responding to the overtures of self righteous men. Acid attacks have
left many women blind and disfigured. 'Eve teasing' has scaled up from
shouted obscenities to groping and physical assaults which have led to death
in some cases. Judges in various high courts of our country have condoned
rapists who have married the victims of their aggression! (A girl should
definitely not marry a creep who has a record of violent abusive behaviour
against her but should be protected from being pestered by him again!)

        Traditional Indian society had condoned several abuses against
women- sati, deprivation of food and clothing to widows, devadasis forced
into temple prostitution., women not allowed to own land or goods, etc… The
empowerment of women which the West has brought to India has deprived our
traditional Indian louts of their scapegoats and doormats. With the Saffron
Brigade in power in Karnataka they feel free to behave in  the tradition of
filmi goondas. Karnataka home minister V.S.Acharya upbraids the parents
saying "You should take care of your children.  What can we do if some
goonda elements do it?"- thereby castigating the parents and condoning the
goondas!

      The silver lining of the cloud is that people are responding and
protesting! In the 1970s the MTP Act was passed without much protest and
abortion became legal in India.  But soaring Female Feticide rates provoked
a lot of dismay leading to the 1991 Act preventing misuse of prenatal
diagnostic tests to selectively abort female babies.  Similarly, the
response of the Mangalore Police in filing cases against the Christian
victims accused of  proselytizing, and not their attackers  has largely been
overlooked by the press, but the soft treatment given to Mutalik's goondas
has provoked outrage. More and more Indian women have stopped tolerating
oppression in the name of 'tradition' and have started speaking up!

 Media India .com

Category: Indian Health News