Skewed Sex Ratio in India: Stopping Female Foeticide Essay

It is worth mentioning in the first place that the continuing debate over the abortion problem has always been based on two main opposing views. Nagan (1971) terms these viewpoints as “the fetus oriented view and the female perspective” (p. 288). To his mind, defining the status of the fetus as a human being or only as a potential human being best indicates polarity

All over the globe, violence and discrimination against women and girls violates their human rights and severely compromised their perception of equality. Culture, false beliefs and ancient traditions, such as early marriage, the nuclear family, gender-based discrimination, which lead to violence against women and femicide, destroyed young girls ' mental and physical wellbeing and self-esteem by supporting the ideas that gender-based discrimination and inequality is acceptable in our societies.

During the second trimester, a method is used called Dilation and Evacuation (D&E). During D&E, a forceps is used to take out larger pieces of the child, while a curette scrapes the smaller tissues out. Following this, a vacuum extracts any remaining pieces of the child. During the third trimester, a (now outlawed in most states) procedure is performed called “Partial Birth Abortion” During partial birth abortion, the child is partially delivered, and the skull is subsequently crushed or drilled into, thus killing the child.

This particular article addresses the issue of female feticide and sex-selection abortions in Canada. Mrozek tends to focus on the Indian culture as it is a rather common practice in Indian custom. Indo-Canadians sometimes choose to abort their babies if they find out they are having a girl. Other times they can be coerced into it by elder relatives

Woman have a lot to consider in their everyday lives. Although bringing a child into the world can be a beautiful thing, women should have the right to choose if they are ready for that commitment and if they want to bare any children at all. In some countries these are freedoms that women do not have. When reading about genders, it was sad to read about “honor killings”. Honor killings typically involve male family members killing a female family member who caused shame or disgrace to the family. The female could be a victim of rape and

Violence and cruelty directed at women starts from a very young age and it happens because certain cultures and governments allow it to exist and thrive within their population. Within the text, Steinem reveals that, “...child marriage contributes to the fact that the biggest cause of death among teenage girls worldwide is pregnancy and childbirth” (Steinem). Child marriage is still remarkably prominent in many cultures still to this day. These young adolescent bodies are being forced to carry a child the second they get their period and so many of these young girls die from this cultural normalcy. This illustrates why radical feminism is still essential to completely eradicate this kind of subtle brutality against developing girls. Often the cruelty can start even earlier than that with the second thier parents find out they are having a baby girl. Thanks to the ever growing baby boy preference, female fetuses are getting aborted more and more often. If the baby girl is already born they are often neglected, left to

This policy does not only limit the number of children a family can bear; it has also caused gender imbalance. In addition, it places pressure on women as families believe in passing down their family name down generations. They were also subjected to forced abortion if it appears to be a baby girl, and are blamed if they were to give birth to a baby girl. This difference in treatment took a turn for the worst after 1986, when ultrasound tests and abortion became easier to come by. Not only has the policy stole the freedom of women’s rights to make decisions, it had also led to the increase of female infanticide

Another supported claim that attributes to this idea of inequality and gender relations is the insights from three indigenous scholars living in India, which I had the privilege of looking in depth to their encounters. They were able to infer that female fetuses are often at times killed off and men are always subject to be the dominant figures in societal practices. They have provided insights that advancement in technology has provided a way that women wouldn’t be treated like valueless customers, but rather provide population control incentives such as nation-state prosperity. (Dube, R., Dube, R., & Bhatnagar) This will be a future planning strategy that might undermine well with the current situation of this issue at hand today.

This author has chosen to discuss the ethical issues of abortion. This is a highly debated topic that will exist amongst women. It is happening at high rates. “In 2013, 664,435 legal induced abortions

As science advances, it is becoming very common for parents from all over the world to select their babies gender by abortion. However, this trend is unacceptable and detrimental to the natural balance of things, society and the future of humanity.

A third Hindu text says that if the woman aborts her child she will lose her place in the caste system. Hinduism believes that it is a public duty of a woman to have children so the family will continue and there will be new members to the society. Woman will terminate their pregnancy if they are having a girl. Girls have no opportunities for economic support and there are few jobs for woman. This is why this religion has a preference for boys and why woman prefer to have sons. This view and religious belief pressure can lead to an attempt to stop the birth of a girl this is called female foeticide. Since they condemn the act of abortion, women will do other things to terminate the pregnancy. (Murti and Mary ) (Hinduism and abortion)

India’s statistics are similar. According to the BBC “In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls. Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India's ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China. Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide”.

172). Prior to reading this chapter I did not know that “female feticide” existed. Most of the women who are receiving abortions want children and can financially support them, but do not want a female child. Healthy children are being aborted because of their sex and that is heart breaking to hear. Also, I think it is ridiculous that half a million girls are being aborted every year; there will always be more males than females. I do not understand how India expects to maintain a population of people without women.

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.