Despite laws against the use of abortion to select the sex of children born to couples in India, experts say doctors are fully co-operating in the use of ultrasound to determine the sex of foetuses, and participate in abortion of females for couples who want male children.
As a result, in at least four Indian states there are more than 20 percent fewer females born than males. Experts warn this unprecedented phenomenon could have negative social and cultural consequences.
Experts blame the epidemic of killing female foetuses in the womb on the widespread availability and affordability of ultrasound machines. The number of ultrasound machines in India is now estimated to be nearly 100,000.
In India, sons support the parents in old age, whereas females are considered a burden on whom the parents have to spend huge amounts as “dowry” for getting married.
Source: Sanjay Kumar, Ratio of girls to boys in India continues to decline, November 1, 2003, British Medical Journal; Mira Shiva and Ashish Bose, Missing…Mapping the Adverse Child Sex Ratio in India, October 2003, United Nations Population Fund.
For BMJ text http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7422/1007?etoc
For United Nations Population Fund report
http://www.unfpa.org.in/publications/16_Map%20brochure_English.pdf
For more on Population/http://www.ncpa.org/iss/int/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 4 November 2003
