From Catholic News Service

Church workers say India must enforce curbs to female feticide

By Anto Akkara, Catholic News Service

NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- Though church workers have hailed the recent Indian government campaign to curb rampant female feticide, they said real progress will not come without enforcement and changes in attitudes.

India's Ministry for Women and Child Development launched the Decade of the Survival of the Girl Child in March to reverse the decline in the number of women.

"It is a tragedy that every year half a million girl children are being killed and prevented from being born," said Renuka Chowdhury, federal minister for women and child development.

A day later, in its annual budget, the Delhi territorial government announced an incentive to dissuade parents from aborting female fetuses. The Delhi government will deposit 5,000 rupees (US$112) in the name of each female born in New Delhi, and parents can claim the deposit with interest when the girl turns 18 and completes schooling.

"These are very positive measures, and we are most happy about it," said Sister Mary Scaria, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Delhi Archdiocese.

"But the question is how sincere is the government in implementing such declarations," said the nun, a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary.

Sister Mary told Catholic News Service that New Delhi, the capital of India, has the dubious distinction of being the "female feticide capital" of India.

A Christian group's study of the birth records in Delhi's hospitals revealed that among first-born children, there were only 558 girls for every 1,000 boys.

In families that had a third child after two girls, the number of girls born decreased even more -- there were only 219 girls for every 1,000 boys, said the study of 370,000 birth records in Delhi's eight leading hospitals over a decade. The results of the study were released last year.

The Indian government has banned sex-determination tests and even ordered suppliers of medical equipment such as ultrasound machines to provide the list of buyers to the government, but female feticide is a thriving business, Sister Mary said.

"The latest media reports show that there are less girls in affluent families than in poor families," said the nun, pointing out that the rich find it easier to circumvent the law by bribing doctors.

"The declining sex ratio is most shocking because the geographical spread of the problem coincides with areas of growth, economic prosperity, agricultural surplus and high per capita incomes," said Chowdhury.

On March 29, India jailed a doctor who used ultrasound to tell an undercover agent that she was pregnant with a girl but that it could be "taken care of." Although gender testing is illegal in India, abortion is legal.

Virginia Saldana, executive secretary of the Office of Laity and Family of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, told CNS that widespread female feticide stemming from strong son preference is a "malaise deep-rooted in Indian psyche."

According to Hindu tradition, a father cannot attain "moksha" (salvation) unless he has a son to perform his last rites. This age-old belief renders females unwanted and has paved the way for the dowry system, reducing her to an economic liability for the family.

Each year, India records more than 25,000 dowry deaths. Often, young brides are set on fire, in acts passed off as suicide by their in-laws, for failure to meet dowry demands.

"No amount of legislation will improve the situation unless there is an attitudinal change in the society toward the girl child," said Saldana, who was secretary of the women's commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India for six years.

Saldana, who is based in Mumbai, said awareness of gender prejudice and discrimination should be taught in schools to alter the attitude toward baby girls.

"Everyone would admit that gender prejudice is bad, but they all practice it unknowingly," she said. Even the church is "guilty of promoting male stereotypes that reinforce gender prejudice and inequality," she said.

Though every diocese has mandatory marriage preparation courses, Saldana said gender prejudice is a not subject covered in such programs.

Even in highly literate southern Kerala state, Saldana said she found only male lecturers speaking at a three-day marriage preparation course attended by several hundred engaged couples.

"When the lunchtime came, the nun in charge insisted that women should wait until men finished eating instead of allowing the (prospective) couples to eat together," Saldana said.

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