The Genocide of Indian Daughters – Inside Story Jan 11, 2013

Supreme Court judges in India have summoned the health secretaries in seven states over a worrying fall in the number of young girls in India.

They are demanding details about clinics flouting the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act – to determine the sex of unborn babies – with potentially fatal consequences.

The judges are blaming what they call rampant foeticide and infanticide, and they say the mindset of parents and society need to change.

“The people [district medical officers] who are supposed to be enforcing the [Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act] they themselves have the same patriarchal mindset and they don’t feel that it’s wrong to kill a girl child in the desire for a boy, naturally they won’t go and prosecute anybody. Add to it corruption [within the medical profession].”

- Mitu Khurana, a pediatrician and a women’s rights activist

The UN children’s charity UNICEF says the culture of favouring males in India is costing the lives of millions of young girls.

The agency says more than 2,000 illegal abortions are being carried out every single day, and it is dramatically altering the balance of the population.

It warns: “Decades of sex determination tests and female foeticide that has acquired proportions are finally catching up with states in India. This is only the tip if the demographic and social problems confronting India in the coming years.”

Speaking in April 2011, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, called for a crusade against the widespread practice of foeticide and infanticide.

“The falling child sex ratio is an indictment of our social values. Our girls and women have done us proud in classrooms, in boardrooms and on the sports field. It is a national shame for us that despite this, female foeticide and infanticide continues.”

The 1991 Indian census showed there were 945 girls for every 1,000 boys, aged up to six. Ten years later, it dipped even further to just 914 girls for every 1,000 boys.

But that is just the average. The figures are far worse in some states.

The 2011 census found there were 830 girls for every 1,000 boys in the northern state of Haryana. It was 846 in neighbouring Punjab state. And in the national capital territory of Delhi the figure was 866.

“The main problem really is that parents don’t want girl children. As long as that underlying societal attitude continues, it’s very, very difficult especially in a country like India where all kinds of laws are not implemented properly and flouted, to find a purely legal solution to what is a societal problem.”

- Sadanand Dhume, a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute

India has very strict abortion laws. Until 1971, terminating pregnancies was only allowed if the mother’s life was at risk. Other exceptions were then allowed: for fetuses with potential birth defects; for babies conceived through rape; and for pregnancies in unmarried girls below 18.

In 1994 the government passed a new law making it illegal to use ultrasound scans to determine the sex of the baby – a crime carrying a jail term of up to three years.

So what needs to be done to change the centuries-old mindset of favouring boys?

Joining the Inside Story discussion with presenter Shiulie Ghosh are guests: Mitu Khurana, a pediatrician and a women’s rights activist; Suhas Chakma, the director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights; Sadanand Dhume, a journalist/writer and a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.

Thanks to Dr. Vipin Kalia (TRP board member) and his connections in India we have the opportunity to visit with an Indian doctor working in Haryana, India. This state has one of the highest rates of female gendercide in all of India.

It is our hope to be able to share our successes so that they too can implement the Prenatal & Newborn Care initiative in villages in Haryana.

Will keep you posted!

I am glad we highlight and celebrate the encouragement of adoption during the entire month of November. It seems November is the perfect month to not only express thanks to the adoptive paren
ts but for the joy the children have brought into their new families.

In our immediate family, I not only had the privilege of becoming Shannon and Ginger’s adoptive dad but we also have an amazing grandson that came into our family when he was first born.

This is also the opportunity we are attempting to support with The Rhema Project. As crazy as it sounds, there are good Indian families that are waiting to adopt an abandoned Indian baby girl. And, there are cradle babies that are turned away by qualified orphanages that are approved to complete domestic adoptions.

WHY? The government in its attempt to prevent corruption limits the amount an orphanage can charge for its adoptive services – it “costs” the orphanage approximately $500 more to rescue and care for the abandoned baby girl and complete and monitor the adoption process. So, the orphanage must limit the number of adoption strictly for financial reasons.

Good news. The government does not limit The Rhema Project from contributing to an orphan fund that can be then be used by the orphanage of offset the financial difference. This also reinforces our strategy that Indians must lead and “own” the solution to end the gendercide of baby girls.

During the month of November, for those wanted to share in the experience and support the adoption of an Indian baby girl to an Indian family can make a contribution (any amount) on our website (www.therhemaproject.org) or mail a charitable gift (note adoption) to The Rhema Project PO Box 10013 South Bend, IN 46680

Early next month, many Indians all around the world will be celebrating Diwali or Deepawali – festival of light. Traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains it has transcended its religious roots to become a cultural event much like Thanksgiving or Easter here in America.