Women's Rights Advocates Call For Government To Enforce Sex-Selective Abortion Ban In India
Some women's rights advocates on Monday called on the Indian government to enforce laws forbidding sex-selective abortion and declare the issue a "national emergency," the AP/Washington Post reports (George, AP/Washington Post, 12/18). India in 1994 approved the Prenatal Determination Act, which bans the use of technologies such as ultrasounds and sonograms for the purpose of sex-selective abortion. The law also bans advertisements for prenatal sex determination, as well as the practice of preconception sex selection law (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23). According to a UNICEF report released last week, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born daily in India and about 10 million fewer girls than expected were born in the past 20 years. The most recent Indian census figures found that the gender ratio decreased from 947 girls per 1,000 boys to 927 girls per 1,000 boys between 1991 and 2001, the AP/Post reports. The government must "rise in revolt against the male child mania," Gurudas Dasgupta, an Indian lawmaker, said during a parliamentary debate on Monday. Ranjana Kumari, a women's rights advocate, said the gender ratio "is truly a state of emergency and the government has to act," adding that a message must be sent to the people to "invest in girls, realize their value, help them realize their potential, let them live." Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Choudhury said the government is planning to offer incentives to village councils that work to change discriminatory attitudes. "Female feticide should be treated as a crime and not just a social evil," Choudhury said, adding, "[T]herefore, stringent punishment and punitive action is required." Hundreds of students in recent weeks have held candlelight vigils in many cities to create awareness of the issue, the AP/Post reports (AP/Washington Post, 12/18).
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