Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: "India's Lost Daughters"

  1. #1

    Exclamation "India's Lost Daughters"

    Yesterday's edition of "International Herald Tribune" carries the following article which is of interest to all of us. This may be relevant to the topic going on in this forum on Sateypal Deswal's thread "Ek Ladoo, Ek Larki". The article is about current gender imbalance in India and does not specifically points towards Jat society. Nevertheless, it is worth reading because our community is now-a-days the worst suffer due to the current scenario in Jatland areas of India.


    India's lost daughters: Abortion toll in millions
    By Amelia Gentleman International Herald Tribune

    TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006

    NEW DELHI As many as 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years as families try to secure a male heir, according to a study published Monday in The Lancet, the British medical journal.

    In the two decades since ultrasound equipment, which allows prenatal determination of sex, became widely available, the number of girls born in India has declined steeply, despite a law banning doctors from disclosing the sex of a fetus to parents.

    Although the routine aborting of female fetuses has been well documented, the study puts new light on the scale of the practice. Experts in India said Monday that they hoped the study would prompt the government to enforce laws against the practice that are already on the books.

    Campaigners have been trying to alert the government to the potential long-term social impact of the phenomenon, warning that, among other problems, it will make it harder for men to find wives. In China, where a one-child policy is strictly enforced, prenatal sex selection has resulted in an estimated 40 million bachelors.

    "We conservatively estimate that prenatal sex determination and selective abortion accounts for 0.5 million missing girls yearly," Dr. Prabhat Jha, a public health professor at the University of Toronto, who headed the research team, said in a statement. "If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable."

    The preference for sons has distorted the gender ratio throughout India.

    As ultrasound equipment becomes cheaper, allowing more and more Indian clinics to purchase it, the gender imbalance in the population has grown greater. In 1991 there were some 945 women for every 1,000 men. The ratio dropped to 927 females per 1,000 males in 2001.

    Jha's team found that parents were more likely to abort a female fetus if the previous child had been a girl. Basing their conclusions on an ongoing Indian national survey of 133,738 births, the researchers concluded that in families where the first child was a girl, the ratio of girls to boys among second children was 759 girls per 1,000 boys - a reflection of the efforts made by families to ensure that at least one of their children was male.

    "To have a daughter is socially and emotionally accepted if there is a son, but a daughter's arrival is often unwelcome if the couple already have a daughter," Professor Shirish Sheth of the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai wrote in a commentary on the findings.

    "Daughters are regarded as a liability," the professor continued. "Because she will eventually belong to the family of her future husband, expenditure on her will benefit others. In some communities where the custom of dowry prevails, the cost of her dowry could be phenomenal."

    The study found that religion played no role in the phenomenon, but that well-educated and better-off families were more likely to find ways of breaking the law on prenatal sex selection.

    The ban in 1994 on revealing the sex of a fetus is widely ignored and there is little attempt to enforce it. In theory, pregnant women who seek help for sex selection could face a three-year prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 rupees, or $1,100, while doctors can have their medical license suspended, but no case has yet come to court.

    Dr. Sabhu George, who has been researching the phenomenon for the last 21 years, said the data from the study did not surprise him but added that he hoped that the publishing of the study in a well-respected international journal would put pressure on the Indian government to act.

    "Over the next five years, we could see over one million fetuses eliminated every year," George said. "The future is frightening."


    The world needs to know about this problem because it is going to get worse," he said.

    His research, conducted with the Center for Women's Developmental Studies in New Delhi, indicates that as ultrasound technology becomes available in more remote areas of India, the number of abortions of female fetuses will increase.

    Rajesh Kumar, of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, and a co-author of the study, agreed that the practice of aborting female fetuses was a problem.

    "Our study emphasizes the need for routine, reliable and long-term measurement of births and deaths."


    ******

  2. #2

    Grim Situation

    It is very unfortunate for entire huminity and it will fall as a curse on us one day. How can we be so stupid and heartless towards these hapeless folks. They give us birth and sacrifice every thing to bring us up and we the ungratful idots kill them before they open their eyes. Where are the ethics of those doctors who indulge in this henious act for a few coins . They be kicked and put behind bars for life. There has to be a very strict law...with stringent punishment to put break on this practice.
    "LIFE TEACHES EVERY ONE IN A NATURAL WAY.NO ONE CAN ESCAPE THIS REALITY"

  3. #3

    "Mujhe to Beta hi Chahiye"

    Thanks Dev ji. I had pointed out in thread "Ek Ladoo Ek larki" that our womenfolk are equally to be blamed for this scenario - many would-be mothers do not want to give birth to a girl-child. So, the mentality of womenfolk has also to be changed as they are the ones responsible for giving births. If a survey is carried out, it would be startling to find out that there is a acute desire (more than men) in women in our society - "Mujhe to Beta hi Chahiye".

  4. #4

    This is really sad!!

    It is really sad to hear this...In land where devis are worshipped in the temples this sort of things still happen.

    Hamaray Dil main pathar ki devion kay liya shraddha hai...per Jivan kay liye nahin...It is a black spot on Indian people.
    "Mine is a peaceful religion, I will kill you if you insult it"

  5. #5

    Good news

    .
    Continuing the debate, now there is a good news that some action is being taken against the culprit doctors in Haryana. The news item which appeared on 30 March 2006 issue of International Herald Tribune is reproduced below.


    Doctor jailed in India for identifying sex of fetus
    By Amelia Gentleman International Herald Tribune
    THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006

    NEW DELHI An Indian doctor has been jailed for two years for disclosing the sex of a fetus to its parents in the first instance of a physician's being jailed under legislation designed to stop the abortion of unwanted girls.

    An Indian law passed in 1994 bans doctors from using ultrasound tests on pregnant women to determine the sex of the unborn child, but the legislation is widely flouted.

    A study published in the Lancet medical journal in January estimated that as many as 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India in the past 20 years.

    Activists praised the conviction, which was reported in the Indian media Wednesday, as "positive" but said that one jail sentence in 12 years was hardly cause for celebration.

    Dr. Anil Sabani and his assistant, Kartar Singh, were caught during a sting operation in the northern state of Haryana, which has one of the most skewed sex ratios in the country, with an estimated 861 women for every 1,000 men.

    Local government officials sent three pregnant women to their clinic to see whether the doctor would tell them their children's genders.

    The doctor was secretly videotaped telling one woman that the scan had shown that she was carrying a "female fetus and it would be taken care of." Abortion is legal in India, but aborting on grounds of gender is not.

    Sentencing the doctor, the magistrate said: "Because of persons like the convict, the day is not far when there will be no girl child."

    With ultrasound equipment increasingly widely available and affordable to clinics even in the most impoverished parts of the country, the Indian cultural preference for sons has distorted the sex ratio across the nation. In 1991, there were about 945 girls per 1,000 boys, but this dropped to 927 by 2001, according to the national census.

    The Lancet report explained that daughters were "regarded as a liability."

    "Because she will eventually belong to the family of her future husband, expenditure on her will benefit others," it said. "In some communities where the custom of dowry prevails, the cost of her dowry could be phenomenal."

    Sabhu George, a campaigner against gender-selection, based in New Delhi, said he was heartened by the news of the prosecution because it showed "that the law works."

    He said, however, that the action had been taken in just one district, while the rest of the nation remained reluctant to prosecute doctors.

    * * * * *
    तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय

  6. #6
    Good thread started deshwal ji ..

    Many factors are there due to which even the ladies wish to have these abortions on sex determination .....WO NU KAHYA KAREN ...KE CHORRI RAAT NE OOTH KE KHAA HAI ...PAR CHORI KE JEE NE DUKH HO JYA TE ..MAA BAAP KA JEEVAN NARAK HO HAI ..

    But all these evils in the society like dowry, less education for girls and aborting fetus on sex determination ...will be reduced after the education and girls being self dependent. Laws are favouring girls a lot these days and the other side is that some of the advanced or ill minded people are using it as a weapon though.

  7. #7
    Very well said Hooda saab.
    Education is the key to eliminate thsese all bloody things, Specially women education. Its sad to get all these news but the old mentality (beta nahi hoga to chita ko aag kaun dega etc. etc.) is the main culprit here.
    Jats are specially suffering from this because of another social evil 'dowery system' too.

    Regards.

    Quote Originally Posted by jitendershooda
    Good thread started deshwal ji ..

    Many factors are there due to which even the ladies wish to have these abortions on sex determination .....WO NU KAHYA KAREN ...KE CHORRI RAAT NE OOTH KE KHAA HAI ...PAR CHORI KE JEE NE DUKH HO JYA TE ..MAA BAAP KA JEEVAN NARAK HO HAI ..

    But all these evils in the society like dowry, less education for girls and aborting fetus on sex determination ...will be reduced after the education and girls being self dependent. Laws are favouring girls a lot these days and the other side is that some of the advanced or ill minded people are using it as a weapon though.
    जाट महान
    ----------
    बेगानों में वफ़ा की तलाश ना कर ‘साहिल’,
    तेरे तो अपने भी अक्सर बेवफा निकलते हैं l

  8. #8
    Email Verification Pending
    Login to view details.

    polyandry

    I Heard Recently That In Punjab Polyandry Is Being Practiced

    In Some Areas. For Those Not Familiar With Theterm Polyandry Is The

    Opposite Of Polygamy. (it Is Where One Woman Is Married To Several

    Men)

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by vikramlal
    I Heard Recently That In Punjab Polyandry Is Being Practiced

    In Some Areas. For Those Not Familiar With Theterm Polyandry Is The

    Opposite Of Polygamy. (it Is Where One Woman Is Married To Several

    Men)

    AAchhya rei......Jullamm ho gye bhai.........Inn khaggddan kei Konchch mei ghuss marro.....Kassai ke beej....ha..ha..ha. Chhorri tei khattam kar di kameenna nei...? Nass ki rahi pakadd rhe kameen?
    "LIFE TEACHES EVERY ONE IN A NATURAL WAY.NO ONE CAN ESCAPE THIS REALITY"

  10. #10

    Buying Brides...

    India's 'bride buying' country
    BBC News, Mewat, Haryana

    Anwari was sold for $220 to a man in Haryana Anwari Khatoon came visiting a relative in the northern Indian state of Haryana eight months ago, but ended up getting married against her will to a local man with six children from a previous marriage. A man from her village in eastern Jharkhand state had accompanied the 22-year-old woman on her journey to Haryana. When she arrived in the village, Anwari found the man and her relative pressuring her to marry the man with six children, a middle-aged truck driver. Her new husband paid 10,000 rupees ($220) to the man who brought her to the village. "Can a young, single girl get married to a father of six willingly?" asks Anwari. "It is all fate. What has happened has happened. What can I do? My parents didn't even get any money from this deal."

    Anwari is among the several thousand young women from all over India who are literally sold-off to men in Haryana, a state notorious for its low ratio of girls to boys. The going rate for buying a girl in the state is anything between 4,000 and 30,000 rupees ($88 to $660).

    Sex slaves

    A cultural preference for sons over daughters has skewed India's sex ratio in places like Haryana. As a result of female foeticide, there are about 861 women for every 1,000 men in Haryana, according to the last census. The national average is 927 women to 1,000 men. Since there aren't enough local women to marry, Haryana's men pay touts to bring women for them to marry and to work on their farms. Social activists reckon most of these women end up being used as sex slaves and then resold to other men in what looks like a flourishing market in trafficking of women. The head of Asawati village told us about a girl called Ajmeri who arrived last month from the state of West Bengal in eastern India. She told the village head that "some people had come to see me and offered 10,000 rupees ($220)".

    We went to look for Ajmeri. But when we reached her home she wasn't there. Her neighbours told us that she "may have been taken away by somebody" to another village.

    Vicious cycle

    These young women who are sold off as brides against their will are known in Haryana as 'paros'. According to one estimate, there are almost 45,000 'paros' here from the dirt-poor, eastern tribal state of Jharkhand alone. Touts pay their poor parents anything between 500 to 1,000 rupees (about $11 to $22) to take the daughter. Social activists say Haryana exemplifies the vicious cycle of exploitation of women and represents a society which does not respect women.

    Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala says the government is aware of the problem. "Whenever we get complaints we take action. We are also trying to educate people socially and address the sex ratio problem," he says.

    Last month a doctor and his assistant in Haryana were sentenced to two years in jail for revealing the sex of a female foetus and then agreeing to abort it. It was the first time offenders had been sent to jail for this offence. Shakti Vahini is one NGO trying to help the paros by rescuing them and sending them to a safe home run by the state government. "Every village has five to six girls who have been brought from outside," says Rishikant who works with Shakti Vahini. Most of the rescued women were hired as farm workers by local men and were being sexually abused, Rishikant says. In one case a man stands accused of beheading his paros wife because she refused to sleep with his brothers. "There is a lack of political will, so no government is taking any steps to curb this problem," says Sanjay Mishra, who runs a voluntary group in Jharkhand associated with rescuing these women.

    Meanwhile, Haryana's infamous market in women continues to flourish.
    JAT BALWAN, JAI BHAGWAN

    (Ein Volk - Ein Reich - Ein Fuhrer)

  11. #11
    Bikkann laggi auratt dekho,nass ja liya kardda
    Izzat ke bhi mol ho liye,lachar-pachar yo paldda

    Aurat ki kismat dekho ya kissi satai ja rhi
    Paidda kane walli dekho kyukkar dhakke kha rhi
    Chhori 15 saal ki arr yo 60 saal ka bandd-da
    Izzat...........


    Aurat ne lilaam karanniya intt ke battan ja ga
    Kutte ki yu maut marrega,Nyuweine gobbar kha ga
    Keedde padiyo inn bhhundyan kei,Yo ke chalan chall rhya...?
    Izzat.............
    "LIFE TEACHES EVERY ONE IN A NATURAL WAY.NO ONE CAN ESCAPE THIS REALITY"

  12. #12

    Thanks

    .
    Thanks, Col. Malik for posting the material from BBC News. BBC Hindi is also covering this topic now-a-days. In "General Talk" forum also, one thread is continuing on this topic : देश भर की लड़कियाँ बिकती हैं हरियाणा में. The story in BBC Hindi is the same - containing some incidents in Mewat area of Haryana.

    Nevertheless, the situation is grim in the State and efforts at Government level alone would not suffice to ameliorate it. All sections of our society should be involved to eradicate this evil
    .
    Last edited by dndeswal; April 11th, 2006 at 04:31 PM.
    तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •