Events & Issues

New Delhi, 22 September 2014

Girl Child In India

‘SLOPPY’ EXECUTION OF LAWS

By Dr S Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The Supreme Court recently pulled up the Union and State governments for the “sloppy” implementation of the Pre-Natal Sex Determination Act passed in 1994. The Court was dealing with an appeal filed about a year ago by a member of the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) constituted under this Act on the wide prevalence of sex-determination clinics and tests despite the Act.

The member criticized the NIMC itself for its slackness in conducting inspections and taking action. The Supreme Court then directed the State governments to provide up-to-date data on the steps taken to prevent female foeticide. While disposing off the appeal, it observed it’s a reflection of “lack of concern for the female child”. It noted that the Governments had failed to keep track of the hospitals/diagnostic centres and to create public awareness about the problem. It was said to be a complete collapse of the mechanism itself to prevent sex-selection.

Indeed, the Supreme Court has been expressing concern over declining sex-ratio on several occasions. In February 2012 too, the Court chided the State governments for failure to implement the law.

The modern medical technique of ascertaining the sex of the foetus was introduced in India in the mid-70s. It soon became popular among different sections – the poor and the rich, male and female, the educated and the illiterate, and urban and rural residents as a great medical wonder of immense practical use.

Known as Ultrasonography, it is a method used to ascertain the state of the foetus so that proper care and timely remedies, if necessary, can be taken. However, it has become a tool in India primarily to ascertain the sex of the foetus not out of plain unintentional curiosity but to get rid of unwanted girl babies. Ruthless couples and their relatives, and unscrupulous and greedy medical professionals and commercially oriented clinic owners collude to carry out female foeticide as an abortion permitted under the Act of 1971.

Reports soon came that laboratories equipped to conduct sex determination tests were opened in every nook and corner of the country. Villages lacking even clean drinking water supply and primary health centres had a laboratory to conduct sex-determination tests! Such was the popularity of this medical invention that has helped to drastically reduce female population at birth.  Demand for labs also increased.

The over-all sex ratio (the number of females per 1,000 males) is recorded as 941 in 1961, 933 in 2001, and a slightly higher figure of 940 in 2011. In the age-group 0-6 years which is crucial, the decline in sex ratio is drastic from 976 in 1961 to 927 in 2001, and 914 in 2011 which is lowest since Independence. According to estimates, about 5 lakh female foetuses are aborted annually. A recent UNICEF report has put the loss of female babies in the last six years as over one crore in India!

The crime of female infanticide is an age old evil in India. The colonial administration enacted a law against it in1870. Under the IPC, causing miscarriage voluntarily by medical intervention and without the consent of the mother was a crime originally. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, enacted in the course of several population control measures, permitted abortion on medical advice to save the mother’s life or to prevent the birth of hopelessly deformed or lunatic babies.              .

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Within the country, southern India has a better record on the whole though there are several pockets specializing in female infanticide as an accepted customary practice. These are increasingly resorting to foeticide which is not considered a crime in common perception. 

Comparatively prosperous States have lower sex ratio as 893 in Punjab, 866 in Delhi, 818 in Chandigarh, and 877 in Haryana. However, Kerala and Puducherry have a unique record of sex ratio of 1,084 and 1,038.

About two years ago, a novel proposal was made by the Planning Commission to relax the rules governing sex determination of foetus. It rightly evoked much criticism though the professed object was to facilitate adoption of female foetus. It was argued that this would prevent female foeticide and provide for necessary care for growth and safe delivery of healthy female babies.   Concerned pregnant women and other stakeholders were to be offered incentives to avail this adoption programme.

The Planning Commission was obviously under an illusion that it is only the inability to provide maternal and child care that leads to female foeticide in India. Like lowering the poverty line to lessen poverty and poverty ratio, female foetal adoption was conceived as a strategy to improve sex ratio at birth! 

The country seems to be bothered more with statistics than with social problems. Sex ratio is an indicator of human development index of the UNDP and India is under compulsion to improve its miserable performance. There were no takers for the Planning Commission’s proposal.

Such proposals reflect superficial thinking and an open refusal and confession of inability to treat the roots of the problem of missing female babies. It will worsen the situation and usher in new problems.  

The malady is a deep-rooted prejudice against girl children for social and economic reasons and not just the financial inability to bear the expenses of child bearing and rearing. Needless to say, girls are looked upon as a liability in view of growing dowry demands and expenses of their weddings. Forms of dowry grow with expansion of goods in the market. Any new household appliance, electronic goods, modern furniture, new models of vehicles, and even tour packages promptly get added to the list of dowry. Educating girls and marriage put double burden on middle class families and also on those below who take pride in emulating the example of higher classes. Television serials and advertisement industry add fuel to the dowry fire. Goods are advertised as suitable items as dowry.

Son preference as an insurance for old age and as a means to salvation after death surface in all debates. But, they seem to be only secondary to the negative factors associated with girls particularly those involving financial implications. Therefore, dowry prohibition law must be enforced and extravagant weddings discouraged by heavy expenditure taxation on both parties of marriages.

Parliament passed the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act in 1994 which restricts such tests to detect genetic abnormalities and forbids sex detection. Five forms of offences are mentioned. The offenders may be husband or a relative of the pregnant woman, medical practitioner, the organization or laboratory conducting the tests or any person connected with the business. The punishments go up to five years of imprisonment and fine of Rs.50,000.

This was followed by the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act in 2002 expressly banning sex selection. The Medical Council may cancel the licence of the doctor involved in such an offence.

The abominable sex ratio proves beyond doubt that these laws too are ineffective. These have no deterrent effect because the offence is not detected and offenders not punished. 

What prevents the authorities to catch the offenders and punish the doctors, clinic owners, and other people who facilitate the crime is beyond comprehension. Perhaps this also involves illegal money transactions that nullify good laws. Deprived of the right to be born, the female foetus can only appeal to courts. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)