Stop Female Infanticide and Foeticide

Link for complaint against illegal ultrasound doctors

- What is female foeticide/female infanticide?

- Why does female foeticide need to stop

- Ideas to prevent female infanticide and female foeticide

- Article from Chandigarh Tribune

- Guru Nanak's doctrine of equality

Indians and Chinese are some the best people the world has to offer. However, they have maintained vestiges of cruelty more sinister than the practice of Sati in the matter of female foeticide.

It is quite possible that the practice of female dowry arose as a result of reduction in the number of men in India due to constant warring and the genetic robustness of the female fetus. Add this to the horrors of the world wars and the partition which impacted males from India. There are no male shortages now, but the practice continues to thrive.

Historically, in the absence of genetic testing, infanticide was the only inhumane option for discarding the female child. This heinous practice continues today in the southern parts of India where families cannot afford an illegal ultrasound test. People in Punjab, Haryana and other Western states can afford illegal test to determine the sex of the baby and discard it. Thus the act of having a family gets reduced to an economic activity instead of a union of two souls. In China and India, males are considered heirs to property, thus exacerbating the problem and reducing humanity back to our ape ancestry. As India and China are corrupt countries, people of Indian and Chinese origins fly back to their native places from other countries to do illegal testing and selective abortions, often due to pressure from their families.

As India becomes a stable country and males do not get consumed to hateful acts by fellow humans, the number of males have gone up. However, the practice of dowry remains stronger than ever. The families that commit female foeticide love their living daughters, however that passion is not extended to the female fetus. The progressive feminine movements tend to have mixed feeling towards this inhuman cruelty as they are in favor or overall freedom of abortion. Their voices get blunted as they have to support both sides of the coin. As females drop in number in a society, society gets destabilized. Similar destabilization, violence and lack of progress is observed in polygamous societies, where females are treated as properties and the source of all violence is to "acquire and control" females.

Here are some ideas to prevent female infanticide and female foeticide.

- Free education for women up to college and even post graduate education in government run institutions (Similar plans are being implemented in many states in India)
- Males should stand up to their own moms and dads when they start chirping about unwanted female children.
- Create a feminine movement so that women feel a sisterhood towards each other and stand up for a woman in a neighboring house rather than turn a blind eye.
- Refuse marriage of women into households or be very careful of families that have only male children or a very high percentage of males. Chances are high that they did you know what. Again, a few innocents will be in needless trouble, but sometimes poisonous and normal snakes look alike and it is better to get out a stick and protect your own daughters and sisters.
- Do not provide any government incentives to families that have only males. Again the bad snake good snake logic applies. But that is OK. Consider it payback for all the dead female children.
- Provide extra incentives for families that have more than one girl child. This will help correct the gender balance in a few years.
- If you have a female child, educate her and provide her the same opportunities as a male child. This is the one thing that makes female killing folks look foolish and dumb.
- Encourage marriage of males to educated women. Conversely, an educated female class will be more aware of their rights.

From The Tribune, Chandigarh 2003/09/12

Son fixation
Enforce the ban on sex determination test

THE Supreme Court�s directive to the government to implement the provisions of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act banning sex determination tests and sex selection to prevent female foeticide is timely. The court has been closely monitoring the implementation of its various orders passed since May, 2001, regarding the ban on the use of ultrasound scanners for conducting such tests. Subsequently, it had sought status reports from all states and Union Territories. It had ordered compulsory registration of all diagnostic centres across the country. There was impasse in Parliament over the Bill on sex determination tests. The Indian Radiologists� Association wanted a clear distinction between clinics, which were engaged in diagnosis for gynaecological purposes, and those for non-gynaecological purposes such as kidney and liver problems. Parliament finally passed the Bill. Wednesday�s directive reflects the Supreme Court�s desire to enforce the Act with a sense of urgency.

However, doubts are bound to be raised on the effectiveness of the legislation as the issue mainly relates to people�s attitudes and preferences. The desire for a son, for instance, is deep-rooted in both rural and urban areas. The problem of dowry and the choice of a son for social security have also contributed to the malady. However, these have led to serious gender discrimination and adverse demographic implications in many states. For instance, according to an estimate, parts of Haryana have witnessed a dip in sex ratio � 618 girls for 1,000 boys. On the whole, while the national sex ratio is 933 per 1,000 men, in Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi, it is below 900. This shows that the menace has reached alarming proportions even in urban areas.

The Act prohibits determination and disclosure of the sex of foetus. It also prohibits any advertisements relating to pre-natal determination of sex. Following the apex court�s orders earlier, appropriate authorities with powers of civil court have been appointed. These were empowered to prosecute the clinics and the doctors if they used ultrasound technique for sex determination. A committee has also been constituted at the national level to monitor the enforcement of the Act through field visits. However welcome these provisions are, legislation alone will not help check female foeticide. What is of utmost importance is a change in the people�s attitude. The preference for a son must go if the larger problem of female foeticide is to be tackled.

Guru Nanak asserted that women were not at all inferior to men:

• "From the woman is our birth, in the woman's womb are we shaped;
  To the woman we are engaged, to the woman we are wedded;
  The woman is our friend and from the woman is the family;
  If one woman dies, we seek another, through the woman are the bonds of the world;
  Why call woman evil who gives birth to kings?
  From the woman comes the woman, without woman there is none;
  O Nanak, God alone is the one Who is independent of the woman (because He is unborn)."
  (Var Asa Mohalla 1, 2-19, p-473)  (Reproduced from Sikhism Philosophy Network)

One doctor down, thousands more to come

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