Canadian research
LINK: FOR WHOLE ARTICLE
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id
=f5edb42a-c6c4-4b36-840c-7f40b284d064&k=49393
Sharon Kirkey
CanWest News Service
Monday, January 09, 2006
As many as 10 million female fetuses have been aborted
in India after ultrasounds were used to reveal their sex in
a country where daughters are a liability, new
Canadian-led research estimates.
And the more education a woman has, the less likely she
is to give birth to a girl.
Published online yesterday by the British medical journal,
The Lancet, the study is based on an analysis of actual
and expected sex ratios. The researchers estimate
13.6 million to 13.8 million girls should've been born
in India in 1997.
But only 13.1 million were.
There are about 28 million births each year in India.
The biggest number of missing females was in
couples having their first child. And the gap was twice
as large among mothers who have a Grade 10 or
higher education versus illiterate women.
It was already known female fetuses were being
aborted in India. What wasn't clear was just how much
it was affecting sex ratios, which have become
increasingly skewed toward boys.
The number of girls per 1,000 boys aged zero to six
was 962 in 1981, 945 in 1991 and 927 in 2001.
The difference is even more pronounced in urban
areas than rural ones.
Some have speculated some kind of unusual hormonal
factor or other cause, such as maternal smoking or
infections, were responsible for driving down the sex
ratios.
But Dr. Jha says the only plausible explanation for
his team's findings is widespread use of ultrasound,
followed by selective abortion.
"It's medical technology. It's not hormones or
infections."
India passed a law in 1994 making it illegal to abort
a fetus based on sex, a crime punishable by a fine,
imprisonment and suspension of the doctor's licence.
"In a country bedeviled in many parts by cultural
taboos, a boy is preferred because he will continue
the family name and bloodline, earn money, look
after the family and take care of parents in their
old age," Dr. Sheth says.
A woman might be considered a "culprit" for not
giving birth to a boy, Dr. Sheth says, even though
it's the male's sperm that determines the sex of a
child. What's more, the cost of a dowry for a
daughter can be "phenomenal," forcing many
families to borrow to pay for them.
"Apparently, there are American doctors who will
do this kind of a thing. And South Asian
communities in Ontario and B.C. apparently are
very big users of the services," said Manjit Singh,
a founding director of the Canadian Sikh Council.
"Cultural norms don't change just because you
happen to move from one part of the world to
another part of the world."
© National Post 2006
BEING A WOMAN TODAY IS A
STUGGLE FROM BIRTH
TO DEATH!
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