'Beti Bachao': Female foeticide unabated in India

The eyes of the world turned to India with the launch of Chandrayaan-2, soon to become the first lander mission to explore the surface of the moon’s south pole. In a milestone for women, the mission is the first ISRO mission to be led by, not just one, but two women and roughly one-third of the personnel working on the mission are also women.

But despite high-profile advances for women on the public scene, the rights of women and girls in some places still lag behind. Girls continue to be eliminated in large numbers through the practice of female foeticide as a direct symptom of preferential attitudes towards sons.

I have found that approximately 1.58 crore girls have gone ‘missing’ from India’s population since 1990 as a result of female foeticide and prenatal sex selection. This amounts to a shocking loss of many girls who otherwise would have become our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, dear friends, or colleagues.

The number of female foeticides peaked in 2005, with about 6.77 lakh girls missing at birth that year. Since then, the practice has declined somewhat, but progress has been slow. Last year alone, an astounding 5.5 lakh girls were selectively eliminated nationwide. The current rate of loss is unsustainable.

Additionally, millions of more girls have been lost due to neglect. The Ministry of Finance estimates that, as of 2014, 63 million women in India have gone missing due to both differential female survival and sex selection.

The substantial deficit of daughters has caused deep imbalances in the sex ratio. While the national child sex ratio in 1991 was 945 girls for every 1,000 boys aged 0 to 6, by 2011, it had fallen to 918.

Over the coming decades, this trend will contribute to a deepening marriage squeeze that will make it increasingly difficult for young men to find wives. According to a study by demographer Christophe Guilmoto, by 2060, more than 10% of men will still be single by the time they turn 50 years old.

Deep sex ratio imbalances also threaten to fuel violence against women. A study by Sunita Bose and colleagues using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) found that married women living in communities with low sex ratios are significantly more likely to have experienced physical violence from their husbands.

This trend is not restricted to India, either. Studies using data from other Asian countries such as China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have found that where the sex ratio is low, women are more likely to have been raped or to have experienced violence from their partner.

Women who resort to abortion are also more likely to experience violence. A study by Rob Stephenson and colleagues using NFHS data on rural women in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu found that women were more than twice as likely to have experienced sexual violence after undergoing an induced abortion.

Violence against women is closely tied to low sex ratios. Female foeticide thus not only eliminates daughters but also could contribute to worsening violence against women. Ending the practice of female foeticide must be a priority at all levels of government.

Several states have long implemented girl child protection schemes to promote the birth and well-being of daughters, like Karnataka’s Bhagyalakshmi scheme. Such schemes have met with varying levels of success, though.

Some schemes like Majhi Kanya Bhagyashree in Maharashtra had required a tubectomy certificate, a requirement which discouraged many couples from participating in the program. In some states, parents fail to receive program benefits as promised or pay-outs are delayed for months. Cases of Anganwadi workers demanding bribes from parents in order to register for schemes have been reported in the past.

Since 2015, the Modi government has implemented “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (BBBP) and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a special savings scheme for daughters. While BBBP has improved the sex ratio in target districts overall from 909 up to 919, the sex ratio has also fallen in 53 out of the 161 districts initially targeted during phases 1 and 2 of the campaign. And while improvements in the sex ratio are welcome, this is still far below a natural ratio of about 952.

States and districts should redouble their efforts under BBBP. Districts that are lagging should look to initiatives used in successful districts to improve their progress. BBBP campaigning should also take a stronger approach by emphasizing the right for girls to be born and cared for as a fundamental human right.

But even with full implementation of BBBP, progress is being held back in some places by lax enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PC&PNDT). Many ultrasonography centres fail to maintain adequate records or fail to keep in line with the Act in other ways.

For instance, an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (GAG) in Jharkhand in 2017 found that 36% of ultrasonography centres in the state did not have any registered sonographers on staff. Furthermore, district authorities carried out only 3% of centre inspections required under PC&PNDT. A separate audit by the CAG in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 similarly found that only 25% of required centre inspections were carried out. Additionally, not one centre in the state had maintained backup images of ultrasonography tests as required by law.

State and district governments should adhere to the comprehensive and routine monitoring of ultrasonography centres and should take immediate action against centres that fail to keep proper records or fail to keep the law in other ways. To make prompt and meaningful progress on improving the child sex ratio, the government at all levels must ensure full implementation of PC&PNDT.

(The writer is a Research Analyst with the Population Research Institute (PRI) in Virginia, United States, and the author of PRI’s recent report Sex-Selective Abortion in India)