The State of the World Population 2005 – The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

Silent spring: the tragedy of India's never-born girls Ranu killed her first two children by strangling them hours after their birth. Both were girls. Married at the age of 18 in the northern, drought-prone Indian state of Rajasthan, Ranu has been pregnant seven times. Two sons died from infections acquired in infancy, two other pregnancies were terminated because the foetuses were female. Ranu is understandably protective of the small boy that today is her only living offspring. Nevertheless she remains defiant. “I will kill other children if they are born girls,” she says, adding that she has no money to pay for their weddings.

Her husband Muktar, a serviceman, seems unconcerned over the fate of his ‘missing’ daughters. And why should he be? In districts all over the state, and indeed, all over the country, the elimination of girl children, either through sex-selective abortion or infanticide, goes largely uncensured, undetected, unpunished and unmourned. “The girl child is killed by putting a sand bag on her face or by throttling her,” explains Ranu, “It is not a rare phenomenon. It happens without any hindrance.”

Today, throughout India, parents are increasingly forgoing outright infanticide in favour of cheap and widely available sex-selection technologies that enable practitioners first to identify female foetuses in utero, and then to abort them. Although the practice of female infanticide stretches back into antiquity, the availability of amniocentesis in the 1980s and later, ultrasound, has enabled families to divest themselves of unwanted girls well before birth. Known as pre-natal sex selection, the phenomenon is resulting in skewed female-to-male sex birth ratios unprecedented in demographic history—in some regions declining to as few as seven girls for every 10 boys. Far from occurring only among the poor and illiterate, sex selection also appears to be most prevalent in regions that boast high levels of educational attainment and relative prosperity.

In March 2001, India's population was estimated to be 1.03 billion from 967 million in 1997. What did not rise, however, but rather—declined precipitously—was the proportion of females in the 0 to 6-year age range. Although the natural sex ratio slightly favours boys at birth, sex ratios have been steadily plunging from 976 girls born for every 1000 boys in 1961, to 927 girls born to every 1000 boys in 2001 and, according to the latest numbers, 896 girls born for every 1000 boys. In developed nations, birth ratios are roughly equal. In a number of regions in India however, ratios have now plummeted to 800 girls born for every 1000 boys. In some small towns, such as Fatehgarh Sahib, located in the prosperous region of the Punjab, the 2001 census revealed that the female-to-male sex ratio had declined to a dismal 754. Needless to say, this has population analysts and authorities alike worried. Very worried.

And the problem, maintains Francois Farah, Chief of Population and Development for the UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, can be attributed to what he terms as an “unholy alliance” between a modern desire for smaller families, the availability and affordability of pre-natal screening technology and abortion, in addition to a strong preference for sons — “that is, discrimination.”

In India, a preference for sons is influenced by a plethora of social and economic factors that effectively relegate girls to the status of burden. But India is not alone: Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Pakistan and the Republic of Korea all show evidence of sex ratio imbalances that are likely the result of sex selective abortion and/or female infanticide or neglect. Parents desire sons because they carry on the family name, inherit family property and, in the absence of social welfare plans, are often considered (rightly or wrongly) to be the sole means of support for aging parents. The high costs of providing a dowry means daughters are often viewed as paraya dhan (to be married and sent away)—another reason why females are singled out for abortion: or in its absence, infanticide.

“The whole concept of equality has not sunk in along with modernization,” says Farah. “Sex selection occurs when modernization moves ahead of an internalized sense of equity.”

“It is the ultimate manifestation of discrimination,” he adds. “It is particularly vicious. It doesn't affect your conscience because there is no evidence.”

Vicious and potentially destabilizing. Although speculative, analyses undertaken by the World Bank and other agencies point to a link between high numbers of males and increased crime and violence. Furthermore, a shortage of females does not necessarily translate into improved prospects for those who remain. Indeed, a small pool of marriageable women may only increase demand for trafficked women, both for the purposes of marriage and prostitution, and could force many girls to cut short their education in order to wed and bear children—all to meet an insatiable demand for marriageable young women. In some regions, the age-old custom of dowry is now being reversed, with the families of young male suitors paying a stiff price for a wife for their sons.

Although existing laws ban sex-determination testing, fully 60 million girls are now 'missing'—effectively falling into a demographic black hole from which, analysts fear, there will be no return. According to government reports, as many as 2 million foetuses are aborted each year for no other reason than they happen to be female. In Punjab, the government claims that the numbers of missing girls will increase by 40 per cent in the forthcoming generation. Furthermore, while legislation may be an important first step towards the elimination of the practice, the deeper problem of gender discrimination needs to be addressed alongside effective law enforcement.

By far one of the worst consequences, notes Ena Singh, UNFPA Assistant Representative for India, is an escalation of violence against women and girls. "There is already a problem with sexual violence in this country," she says. "That either increases or decreases depending on the number of girls in a given society. I ask you, could you send your young daughter out into the street happily if there were nothing but young men around?”

Evidence is also mounting that skewed sex ratios, combined with the traditional low status of Indian women, is beginning to have an effect on traditional concepts of the family. In rural Punjab, where the shortage of women is most pronounced, a desire to keep rural family holdings intact is now driving a trend towards polyandrous unions where one woman, often 'purchased' from poorer regions or from lower castes, is forced to be 'wife' not only to her husband, but also to brothers and even, according to some reports, her own father-in-law. Known as Draupadis—named after the wife of the five Pandavas of Mahabarat epic fame--these women inhabit the very lowest rungs of the family hierarchy and are subject to ongoing sexual and physical abuse.

Says Singh, “Once these kinds of boundaries of shame break down, it is really hard to tell where this rubbish will stop. The levels of violence in these situations are unimaginable. If these kinds of practices become widespread it will be very, very destabilizing for society.”

In India, UNFPA supports the Government in a comprehensive approach that includes lobbying government, alerting the media, creating community-based networks to advocate against the practice, sensitizing health providers and involving youth and other stakeholders. In Haryana State, where sex ratio imbalances are among the highest, women have banded together to form jagriti mandalis ('forums of awakening') aimed at promoting the rights of daughters. To counter the huge profits inherent in providing sex identification services and abortions, these groups are attempting to convince families and doctors of the broader social costs. In Himachel Pradesh, the state government recently revoked laws penalizing elected representatives that choose to have more than two children; while in Punjab, religious leaders have issued diktats and have threatened to excommunicate couples who abort female foetuses.

It is, however, an uphill battle. Although Governments are striving to control the use of ultrasound and operators are now forbidden to divulge the sex of would-be offspring, in many regions implementation remains spotty to nonexistent. Reports have also surfaced of authorities targeting women, who are themselves victims of discrimination, instead of focusing their attentions on the doctors and technicians who have much to lose from the crack-down on such a lucrative enterprise. In many regions, women who fail to deliver boys are harassed by their in-laws or thrown out on the street. In a recent interview with Janmanch, an Indian NGO, Dr. B.S. Dahiya, a former civil surgeon and Haryana State Appropriate Authority for the Pre Natal Determination Technique Act, charges that doctors, “have forgotten their ethics, and are organized in gangster-like Mafia and are making 2000 rupees [about $40] per day in commissions for ultrasonographers.”

Singh, for one, concurs. “There are medical practitioners who are ethical, but there is a lot of money to be made from this practice.” She does note however, that the fact that female birth rates are lowest among the most affluent points to a demand that shows no sign of subsiding--despite legislation and judicial sanction. "If you can afford to buy a car, a refrigerator and a microwave, then maybe you can afford to make sure you have a son as well.” Family structure also plays a role. According to Singh, son preference and sex selective abortion are more likely to occur in wealthier families where the wife does not work outside the home. “In these homes, women are valued more for their reproductive role, as mothers and sexual caretakers, than as productive citizens in their own right. They are more likely to be susceptible to family pressure for a son.”

Experts also blame dwindling numbers of girls on the two-child policy heavily promoted throughout the country. Says Farah, “It is promulgating the idea that the perfect family involves one girl and one boy.” According to Farah, families are more likely to abort a female foetus if the first child is also a girl.

“They don't question the very norms that makes girls vulnerable in the first place.” He says sadly. “They marry her off, or easier yet: get rid of her before birth.”

The State of World Population 2005 report, The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, published by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.