Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
in India
Roisin Stallard
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Acronyms
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All-forms of Discrimination against
Women
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Executive Summary
The abortion of a female foetus on the ground of being female discriminates against
women as a class, in that it is directed against women as a class or group, being
based as it is on the low worth being assigned to women. Lawyers Collective, From
the Abnormal to the Normal: Preventing Sex-selective Abortions through the Law, New
Delhi, 2007, p. 2.
Every year, 12 million girls are born three million of whom do not survive to see
their 15th birthday. About one-third of these deaths occur in the first year of life and
it is estimated that every sixth female death is directly due to gender discrimination.
Indian Alliance for Child Rights, CRC Review Note #1: Indias Girl Child: Crisis of Early
Disposal (Declining Juvenile Sex Ratio 0 to 6 years)
Sex selection not only distorts the natural sex ratio within a country,
leading to gender imbalance, but it also reinforces discriminatory and sexist
stereotypes towards women by devaluing women and girls. Sex selection is
perhaps the most overt form of discrimination against women. The practice of
sex-selective abortion in India has had a significant impact on the sex ratio within
the country, and is primarily related to the provision of the dowry within the
country and the low-worth assigned to many women. Childreach International
and Childreach India currently implement a project entitled Save the Girl Child
in Haryana, northern India, which seeks to empower girls and women, and teach
them issues relating to the girl child, womens rights, education, adolescent
health, personal development and careers in order to end the practice of
abortions on the grounds of gender alone.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
b. Why is it a problem? 4
4. International mechanisms 9
5. Domestic mechanisms 10
7. Recommendations 17
References 19
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1. Introduction
In recent years, the world has been shocked by continued FGM/C in parts
of Africa, the Talibans ruthless suppression of women in Afghanistan and the
abuse of female domestic labourers in countries such as Saudi Arabia. Yet it is
India, the largest democracy in the world that is the undeclared winner in the
contest of violence against women because of the continued violence and
discrimination that women face every day (NY Times, 2005). This systematic and
mass-scale violence against Indian women and girls is playing out in stark
grotesqueness in everyday reality. Women in developing countries tend to fare
worse than men in many dimensions: they receive less schooling, often have
lower rates of labour force participation and earn lower salaries; they are likely
to be poorer and often lack fundamental rights such as the right to vote or the
right to own property. In addition, they are much more likely to be victims of
violence than their male counterparts.
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A normal sex ratio at birth ranges from 102 to 106 males per female (WHO, 2011).
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focus on the continued discrimination against the girl-child in the country. The
fourth and fifth sections will discuss the current international and domestic
Indian legislation which seeks to combat sex-selective abortions and gender
discrimination such as CEDAW and the domestic PCPNDT Act and Dowry
Prohibition Act. The sixth section will discuss Childreach Indias current Save the
Girl Child project based in Haryana, which seeks to alleviate this continued
discrimination against girls through empowering young mothers and girls. The
final section will assess the current situation in India and will provide
recommendations to the Indian government on how to more effectively combat
the situation of sex-selective abortions. Throughout the document there are
stories from both girls and women who are involved in the Save the Girl Child
project.
The initial stage of sex-selective abortion begins with determining the sex
of the unborn child, otherwise known as prenatal sex discernment. This most
commonly used method involves the use of obstetric ultrasonography2, which
checks for the sagittal sign as a marker of foetal sex. It can be performed
between 65 and 69 days from fertilisation. Cell-free foetal DNA testing, wherein a
blood test is performed on the mother to analyse the small amount of foetal
DNA that can be found within it. It provides the earliest post-implantation test.
More invasive measures of prenatal sex discernment include chorionic villus
sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis, which involve testing the chorionic villus
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Ultrasound-based diagnostic imaging technique that can be used to identify the gender of an unborn child
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(found in the placenta) or amniotic fluid. Both these tests can reveal the sex of
the child and are performed early in the pregnancy, however these methods
tend to be more expensive and dangerous than blood sampling or
ultrasonography so are less frequently used. Once the gender of the child has
been determined, parents are able to make the decision about whether they
want to continue the pregnancy or whether they want to proceed with an
abortion.
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Subsequently, the ratio is more skewed between second, third or higher birth-
order children compared to first-borns. This indicates an increasing desire for
boys as the number of daughters increases.
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phenomenon, but has to be attributed to the direct elimination of girls through
methods including sex-selective abortions (UNFPA, 2012).
This discrimination
against girls has become
Singaris story:
My name is Singari, and I am 15, and from a small so embedded in India that
colony about 20 minutes walk from the centre of some families would
Hisar town. My parents are both alcoholics. I rather not have daughters
remember my mum used to tell me that by Standard at all. This has led to the
10 she would marry me off. But I refused. Ive been perpetuation of sex-
refusing ever since. I said to her: I want to study; I selective abortions.
want to go to school. Now Im in Standard 7, Ive got Before the emergence of
this far already. But my parents dont pay for my
pre-natal sex
education they spend every rupee we have on
determination techniques
alcohol. Seema, one of my friends and also a member
of our Girls Action Group - her mum pays my school in the 1970s and 1980s,
fees. I love being a girl. I think anything is possible, I female infanticide was
think I can do anything. When I was younger my practiced in some regions
mum used to send me to the bazaar to get food, and of India, especially in the
Id complain saying thats a boys job, but now its ok. north and north-west of
I can do anything a boy can do. Yes there are some the country where cases
old-fashioned people but lots of others are beginning were well-documented in
to accept that girls are equal to boys and can achieve
the censuses conducted
what they do. In fact, they achieve more.
by the British and India
after independence (Kaur,
2008). While the
deliberate elimination of female infants is thought to have radically declined
since the 18th and 19th centuries, many academic and NGOs believe the passive
elimination of the girl-child continues to this day through neglect such as lack of
food, reduced immunisation rates and restricted access to medical care
(Barcellos et. Al, 2012; Corsi et. Al, 2009; Guilmoto, 2007). Between the ages of
one and 59 months, girls in every region in India have higher death rates than
boys, and inequities in access to care, rather than biological or genetic factors
are the most plausible explanation (The Million Death Study Collaborators, 2010).
A study carried out by the Governments Ministry of Women and Child
Development found that 70.57% of girls reported neglect of one form or another
by family members; 48.4% of girls wished they had been born a boy; and in Bihar
65.63% of girls reported being given less food than their brothers, which is three-
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Circumstances included if a wife burnt food, if she argued with her husband, if she went out without
telling him, if she neglected the children or if she refuses sexual relations
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fold the national response of 27.33%. With this decline in female infanticide,
there has been a corresponding increase in the practice of sex-selective
abortions, which has had a dramatic effect on the countrys sex ratio. In India,
the current SRB lies at 1.12, or 112 males per 100 females (UNFPA, 2012). The
CSR for children under the age of six was 927 girls per 1000 boys in 2001, but in
2011 the number had declined to 919 girls per 1000 boys (UNFPA, 2013). While
the sex ratio in India is far less distorted than the ratio in China, Indias appears
to be continuously widening while Chinas appears to be slowly stabilising.
But why are sex-selective abortions so common in India? One of the most
commonly cited reasons is that of the history of the dowry in Indian culture.
While Indian law forbids the provision or acceptance of a dowry, the
enforcement of the law is weak, and so families continue to offer and accept
dowries and subsequently dowry disputes remain a serious problem (U.S. State
Department, 2012). The fear of being unable to raise a dowry in the future and
the economic burden that doing so may place on a family, forces families into
believing they have no other option that to abort a female foetus (UNFPA, 2013).
Sonography clinics wanting to increase their own financial gains will often exploit
this fear of raising a dowry through their advertising campaigns by using slogans
such as Invest only Rs. 500 now and save your precious Rs. 500,000 later (The
Guardian, 2012). When a woman marries she often leaves the family home and
lineage to be absorbed into her husbands family while a newly married man
remains at home, allowing his parents and family to make use of his financial
resources, and he will be readily available to look after ailing parents when they
become old or ill. A daughter will have forfeited this commitment as soon as she
leaves home to live with her partners family. In Indian culture, men are also the
only ones allowed to perform death rites. As previously mentioned, inheritance
law in India is highly patrilineal and discriminatory towards women, resulting in
them often being unable to inherit anything from their families. Even when there
are no sons, inheritance will pass to uncles and male cousins before it reaches
female heirs. Essentially, kinship systems in India ensure that parents can benefit
little from having daughters but have strong economic incentives to raise sons.
The fertility rate in India has also declined quite rapidly from 1990. In
1990 the average number of children per family was 3.8, which declined to 3.1 in
2000, 2.8 in 2005 and 2.6 children per family in 2010. This desire for a smaller
family means that women are less likely to continue having children until a male
heir is born and are subsequently more likely to abort female foetuses. Women
are therefore under immense pressure to produce sons. Failure to do so may
lead to consequences such as violence, rejection by the family or even death. If
they are unable to afford an abortion by a licensed practitioner, or if the
practitioner refuses to perform the abortion because they believe it is for gender
purposes, the women may continue to have children until a boy is born which
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puts their life and health at risk, or they may resort to unsafe abortions
performed by an unlicensed individual with little or no medical experience in
dangerous conditions. It is estimated every two hours in India a woman dies
from an unsafe abortion (TIME, 2013). What is surprising is that the selective
abortion of girls in India is far more common in richer or more educated
households than in poorer, less educated households where it may be assumed
that financial pressures would necessitate smaller families. Analysis reveals a
positive linkage between abnormal sex ratio and better socio-economic status
and literacy, which contradicts the notion that sex selection is archaic and
practiced among the poor and uneducated (UNFPA, 2007). According to Indias
2001 census, women with high school diplomas and above who gave birth over
the previous year had 114 boys for every 100 girls; among illiterate women by
contrast, the sex ratio was just over 108 still skewed but far closer to the norm.
What is also clear is that the SRB of the second child declines significantly when
the first child was a female.
The sex ratio in India is not uniformly skewed across the country. The
ratio in districts in the north- and north-west of the country is far more skewed
than anywhere else in the country. Haryana is a state in northern India, having
come into existence in November 1966 as a newly created state carved out of
the Punjab state on the basis of language. It had been a part of the Kuru region
in North India. It is one of the wealthiest states of India and has the second
highest per capita income in the country, having experienced quite rapid
economic development in recent decades. It is however one of the more socially
protracted states in India with rampant caste based discrimination, female sex
selection and rape, and the health and social status of women in the state
continues to be poor. Violence against women is quite widespread and neglect of
female children continues to be the cultural norm in this region (Visaria, 2005). In
December 2012 alone, there were 17 gang-rape cases reported to the police in
the state, and so called honour killings are a serious issue, with as many as 10%
of all killings in Haryana being classified as honour killings (U.S. State
Department, 2012). This discrimination against women has led to a situation
where the state has a higher than national average SRB or 117.9 males to
females in comparison with the national average (UNFPA, 2012). This translates
to 877 women to every thousand men (2011); an increase from 861 in 2001. In
Hisar, where Childreach Internationals Save the Girl Child is predominantly
based, the child sex ratio lies at 851 females per 1000 males. Out of the ten
districts in India with the worst sex ratio, three of them are in Haryana.
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4. International mechanisms
The right to reproductive choice exists in IHRL through a set of inter-
related rights including the right to life; the right to health; and the right to be
free from torture or degrading treatment, which are outlined in treaties such as
the Convention to Elimination all forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Countries have an obligation to
ensure that women are
not denied access to safe
abortion services. Mintu Devis story:
My name is Mintu Devi and Im a Social Activist. I
Multiple international
heard about the meetings people were having to
organisations such as the
recruit this team, and once I saw the first two Social
CEDAW Committee and Activists walking around I thought: I want to wear
the Human Rights that coat. I found out what I needed to do. When I
Committee (HRC) have got the job, I was so happy. I didnt ask my husbands
called upon states to permission to get the job - once I got it he gave me a
ensure the eradication of really hard time about it, but I stood up to him, and
gender selective in the end he gave up. My father-in-law kept asking
abortions, although there my husband, whats the point in her working?
Women can work here in this community. But if I
is no international piece
hadnt have found this job, I wouldnt have gone to
of legislation which work. Some women work in cotton mills, button
explicitly calls for a ban factories, or some have small beauty parlours. I had
on gender-specific it in my mind for a long time that I wanted to work
abortions. All current but didnt know where to start. Before I got married I
international treaties also was never allowed to leave the house, plus my
call upon state parties to parents were against women working anyway. After
eradicate discrimination marriage, you get caught up with all the domestic
tasks. But now its just what I do. There are no
based upon gender that
questions asked.
underlie sex-selective
abortions.
5. Domestic mechanisms
The Indian Constitution guarantees women equality before the law and
the equal protection of laws under Article 14 and prohibits discrimination on
grounds of sex under Article 15. A unique feature of the Indian Constitution is
Article 15(3), which empowers the State to take special measures for women and
children. Despite these guarantees, the position of women in India remains
unequal, partially due to the proliferation of domestic laws, which further embed
this discrimination (Basu, 2009). With regards to sex-selective abortion, India
passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971 which legalised
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abortion, however due to the proliferation of sex-selective abortions which were
not criminalised by the Act, the Government established the PCPNDT Act which
sought to outlaw these selective abortions.
The Indian Penal Code, which was enacted in 1860, declared induced
abortion as illegal. Abortion practitioners would either be incarcerated for up to
three years, fined, or both, and women who underwent an abortion could face
up to seven years in prison and an additional fine. The only exception to this law
was if the abortion would save the life of the woman. Due to the illegality of
abortions, many women died whilst undergoing unsafe abortions that were
carried out by individuals with little to no medical training or practical
experience. This, combined with
Ambikas story: the ever-expanding population,
My name is Ambika, and I am 17, and from a led to the formation of the MTP
small colony about 20 minutes walk from the Act of 1971, which came into
centre of Hisar town. I get so much support force in 1972 and was once
from my family compared to a lot of girls. My
amended in 1975. Abortion is
family really like me coming to our Girls Action
Group which is so unusual amongst other legal under the Act if:
parents. My dad is always telling me: the
1. If the mother has a
future is you. Despite the help my dad had
given my uncle, all my life my uncle has serious medical disease or
questioned my dad on why he bothers condition that would
educating his daughters. Its a waste of money, endanger her life if the
he says. But my dad is great, he fights back and pregnancy was allowed to
says: listen, its my money not yours, I want to continue
support my girls, I dont care what you say. I
love being a girl. Even though there are issues 2. If the continuation of the
between boys and girls, its still worth it pregnancy would result in
because my parents support and trust me. This the child having either a
is important, this trust, because Id say the physical or mental
biggest issue girls face is no freedom of handicap
movement. But, with my parents support, I
am much closer to my dream of becoming a 3. If the pregnancy is the
geography teacher. I teach younger children result of rape
here in the community already on my
rooftop, trying to give them the support and 4. If socioeconomic
help I myself have been shown. circumstances of the mother
would endanger the health
and well-being of the new born
The grounds under which India allows abortions are actually quite broad,
and India is therefore said to be one of only 14 countries that allow abortions on
quite broad grounds (TIME, 2013). The Act significantly liberalised abortion laws
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in India. It designates that only qualified doctors under stipulated conditions can
perform an abortion on a woman in an approved clinic or hospital, and the
length of the pregnancy must not exceed 20 weeks. Since the Act was introduced
in 1972 the number of legal abortions being performed is 25 times greater4.
Implementation of the Act has been slow and geographically uneven, with
abortions services often being inaccessible and women are often reluctant to
use the services because of the lack of anonymity and confidentiality. This
legalisation of abortion led to a situation whereby medical practitioners who
sympathised with son preference were willing to carry out abortions on women
who solely wanted to abort their child based on its gender. When the impact of
this was realised the Indian Government enacted the Pre-Conception and Pre-
Natal Diagnostics Techniques (PCPNDT) Act in 1994.
The PCPNDT Act initially only included references to pre- and post-natal
elimination of female foetuses however it was amended in 2003 to include
provisions prohibiting pre-conception techniques. The main purpose of the Act
was to ban the use of sex-selective techniques before or after conception and
prevent the misuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques for sex-selective abortion.
It subsequently regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques such as
ultrasound and amniocentesis by allowing them be used only to detect genetic
abnormalities and serious diseases. It explicitly prohibits the use of
ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of a foetus, and calls
upon doctors and other medical personnel to not communicate the sex of the
foetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives by any means. Any person found
advertising for pre-natal or pre-conception sex determination facilities could be
imprisoned for up to three years and fined Rs.10,000. The Act also mandates
compulsory registration of all diagnostic laboratories, all genetic counselling
centres, genetic laboratories, genetic clinics, ultrasound clinics as well as all
ultrasound machines. It subsequently prohibits the sale of ultrasound machines
to persons, labs and clinics, which are not registered. Penalties for contravening
the provisions of the law include imprisonment and fines, and in the case of a
registered medical practitioner, loss of registration, which can be permanent in
the case of repeated offences. In 2001, the Supreme Court of India gave orders
to five multi-national companies Philips, Siemens, Toshiba and Wipro GE to
give them the addresses of all clinics and persons in India to whom they have
sold ultrasound machines in the last five years to enable the state government to
find out if the machines had been registered. It calls upon ultrasound clinics and
other diagnostic facilities to clearly advertise that disclosing the sex of the foetus
is illegal. The Act also set up a central supervisory board and state supervisory
4
Due to the illegality of sex-selective abortions it is likely that the number of actual abortions carried
out is much higher than the 620,472 estimated. According to various estimates, the number of
abortions performed outside approved facilities varies between 2 million and 6 million per annum.
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board, which are required to review and monitor implementation with the Act
and ensure public awareness.
The PCPNDT Act however is poorly enforced, largely due to a lack of will
on the behalf of officials and doctors to implement it effectively (U.S. State
Department, 2012; UNFPA, 2013). As an Act it is incredibly difficult to enforce.
Ultrasonography is recognised to be widely misused by medical practitioners
and the families of pregnant women, which is completely in violation of the Act,
and suggests that the practice is so widespread that the inspecting mechanisms
at national and state levels are either ineffective or dysfunctional. Despite calls
by the Government to regulate the sale and purchase of ultrasound machines,
efforts have been futile and the machines are flooding into urban, rural and even
remote areas. While there are approximately 40,000 registered diagnostic
centres with ultrasound machines, the number is estimated to be closer to 1.5
million. Due to shortages of personnel or a lack of motivation, data on the
registration of ultrasound machines is lacking and prosecutions for violating the
terms of the Act have been few and far between (Subramanian and Selvaraj,
2009). The prohibition on informing parents of the gender of their child is
unlikely to be successful unless doctors and medical practitioners face real
consequences for violating the Act.
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To combat the practice of sex-selective abortions in Hisar, Haryana State,
Childreach India, supported by Jindal Stainless Limited, launched the Save the
Girl Child project in November 2011 to improve the situation of women and girls
and widen the opportunities available to them. Responding to the issue of
diminishing girl population in the State of Haryana and its deeper implications,
Jindal Steel5, as part of its social responsibility, consciously decided to initiate
direct intervention on girl child issues in communities living in slum and low cost
areas of Hisar. Childreach Internationals main focus in this project was not to
lobby physicians or doctors, or to advocate for a complete ban on
ultrasonography, but to raise awareness of child rights and the equality between
men and women in order to combat the root causes of sex-selective abortions in
India son preference and discrimination against girls. By targeting the root
cause of female abortions through education and raising awareness, this
programme will have a much longer lasting impact and more sustainable results
than a project that simply addresses the surface issue of Indias gender
imbalance or legislation which ineffectively criminalises the practice. The best
way to convince more couples in Hisar to have girls is to improve the status of
women by boosting their opportunities for education and career advancement
that will reduce the levels of inequality between the two genders.
In the first year (November 2011 to October 2012) of the project, 380
mothers were targeted in Surya Colony and Shiv Nigar. The pilot focused on
integrating awareness generation and advocacy on gender issues, the right to
education and sex-selective abortions among different stakeholders along with
the facilitation of maternal child health services including institutional delivery.
As part of this strategy to bring adolescent girls to the forefront and actively
involve them in the program objectives, 15 school-going adolescent girls
between 12 and 19 were brought together, sensitised and formed into a Girls
Action Group. The Action Group were informed of the rights they were entitled
to such as the right to education and the right to be free from harassment and
violence; they were familiarised with the implications of sex selection both
demographically and legally; they were provided with information on hygiene
and sanitation and how to protect themselves from HIV and AIDS; and they also
developed negotiation skills through safety and awareness. The Action Group
were responsible for keeping surveillance on non-schooled children and to
encourage their parents to send them to school; keeping surveillance on
mistreatment of female children and to report the matter to the Social Activator
from their area; looking after the health of women in their area; selecting Best
Mother and Best Mother-in-Law for public felicitation; conducting/performing in
5
Jindal Steel provide venues and partial funding for the project.
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street plays and cultural programs to inform their community about the negative
impacts of sex selection; and becoming positive influences on their communities
against gender-based myths and prejudices. In addition, nine girls were
acknowledged for their academic performance.
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The proposed Community Women Resource Hub has been established
with access to computers, the Internet, printers and a small library to advance
the training of the Girls Action Group, women and other adolescents involved in
the project. The children will also be taught how to communicate effectively in
English and how to prepare for interviews. This training will also assist women in
securing employment in local industries and businesses, which will then inspire
further girls to get involved in education and training. More of the community
will be involved in the project to ensure that the message of girl child rights is
spread further amongst the population. The inclusion of men and boys in the
project would be a new expansion. Boys will be sensitised to gender issues
through training and actively involved in the community work of the project, in
an attempt to combat generations of dangerous gender based stereotypes.
Research will also feature in the Save the Girl Child project for 2013/14. A
baseline survey of pregnant women and pregnancy result history will be
conducted with the tracking of pregnancies from beginning to end and the
monitoring of maternal services providers. Pregnancies will be tracked by
contacting mothers regularly to enquire about their welfare in general while also
providing necessary advice and assistance when required. This research will
allow the project to continually adapt and develop to the changing circumstances
and needs of the society. Leaflets, posters and banners promoting programme
activities will be produced, and regular meetings with community leaders,
teachers and medical practitioners organised. Public awards will be held to
acknowledge, amongst others, the best mothers and best mother-in-laws; girls
who achieve highly academically as well as adolescents involved in social actions,
to highlight the achievement of women in the community. Encouraging and
training girls to take part and work as ambassadors for the project is a key
reason behind its success. Helping them to take the lead in facilitating change in
their own communities increases the girls confidence and demonstrates to
them, and to those around them, just how much they are capable of.
Site visits will be made at least once every quarter and extensive meetings
and discussions will be held with project staff, the target groups and other
stakeholders. Childreach international will be monitoring the project throughout
with regular reports, frequent phone conversation and project visits by local
staff. Self-evaluation will be carried out by the target groups concerning their
own personal progress and then fed back to Childreach International; for
instance GAG members will keep a record of their learning and training. An
external evaluation will also be conducted to fully investigate the impact of the
project on the behaviour of women and the community at large.
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Since November 2011, the Save the Girl Child project in Hisar has been
highly successful, and has successfully improved the status of girls and women in
the district. There is no doubt that the project has led to a reduction in the
number of abortions in the target community. In order to improve the national
sex ratio, there is evident need for action at State level. The next section will
include recommendations to the India government regarding possible policies
and legislation to combat the prevalence of sex-selective abortions within the
country, with special focus on empowering women.
7. Recommendations
While there is a demand for sex determination technology, there will
continue to be a supply. There is therefore a need for social engineering efforts
to reduce the demand if the sex ratio is to be improved and sex-selective
abortions to be reduced. As Amartya Sen stated, modern technologies such as
ultrasound and DNA blood tests are only a means by which to achieve an end
and are therefore not the root cause of the sex selection problem (2009). While
India has implemented the PCPNDT Act to counteract the use of medical
technology for prenatal sex determination, its enforcement is exceedingly weak,
allowing sex-selective abortions to be carried out with impunity. Some have
called for an outright ban on techniques such as ultrasonography or on abortion
in India however it is likely this would merely force women to undergo unsafe
abortions which pose huge risks to the lives of women. A womans likelihood to
have an abortion is about the same whether she lives in a region where abortion
is available on request or where it is highly restricted (Shah and Ahman, 2009).
The only way to reduce the prevalence of these gender specific abortions is
therefore to ensure that that Act is effectively enforced in combination with
attempts to reduce gender discrimination within the country through the
empowerment of women.
In addition,
India needs to take all necessary measures for the implementation of the
National Plan of Action for the Girl Child, and needs to ensure that
protective mechanisms are effectively enforced. Laws which seek to
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protect women and girls needs to be strengthened, and provisions such
as the legalisation of marital rape must be removed.
More steps need to be taken to ensure that the PCPNDT Act is effectively
implemented and enforced. Awareness campaigns involving parents,
communities, law enforcement officers, etc., and take the necessary
measures, including imposing sanctions to end the practice of selective
abortions and female infanticide. Monitoring of the Acts implementation
needs to be intensified, including building the capacity of state and
district level implementing bodies and sensitising and working with the
judiciary to strengthen implementation.
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Inheritance laws in all the
Babitas story: different personal laws and
My name is Babita, and I am a Social land reform acts need to be
Activist here in Hisar, responsible for
amended to ensure that
looking after pregnant women in streets
18-26. Every Social Activist is paired up women are given equal
with another woman, and we are allocated rights to men. Legal and
specific areas to go around. We receive other measures should be
stipends for our work. I go door-to-door
taken to ensure that their
telling women about where and why they
should get their inoculations, for right to inherited property is
themselves as well as their new-born not divested.
babies, and also how important girls
education is. I let them know that school There is a definite need in
fees are free, and other benefits they are
India for an anti-
entitled to. I used to be a housewife, I got
involved in this through a local Womens discrimination law. While
Group where I heard they were recruiting Article 14 of the Constitution
for this position. As soon as I heard about it criminalises discrimination in
I wanted to be involved, so I went to meet
the employment sector on
Mr Chakrabati the project coordinator, and
soon after got the job! Now I feel very the grounds of sex, this is
empowered. Talking to families every day not enough. It must
has really built my confidence. I have learnt encompass all the principles
so much.
incorporated in CEDAW.
References
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revised_3.09_WEB.PDF
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