and ain't i a woman: Why there are more men than women in India
For the last two centuries, unlike most of the world, India's population has contained more men than women. Millions of women and girls have been killed — through situ (the practice of burning a widow alive on her husband's funeral pyre), infanticide and persistent neglect.
Female infanticide is rife in many regions — nearly 4 million more female infants died between 1981 and 1991 than male infants. While the India-wide infant mortality rate is 61 deaths per 1000 live births, in areas where the pressure to have a son is most intense, the female rate reaches over 110 per 1000 live births.
This trend had begun to turn around in the early 1980s, with the strengthening of feminist campaigns. However, many people were shocked when the 2001 Indian census figures showed that the proportion of female children under seven had fallen to a record low of 927 females per 1000 males. The world norm is about 1050 females to 1000 males. Even worse, the ratio varied dramatically across different areas. Five Indian states or territories had a ratio of 880 or less girls to every 1000 boys. In some areas, it had fallen to an astonishing 480 — meaning there are twice as many boys as there are girls.
This did not surprise India's social workers, who have been mapping the rapid spread of prenatal sex determination techniques. Rather than infants being killed (although some still are), female fetuses are being aborted in record numbers.
State and national Indian governments have provided financial support for girls without brothers and, in one district, allocated cots in hospitals where unwanted children could be left for adoption. Neither measure has had a significant impact.
In 1994, the Indian government introduced the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, which makes it illegal to carry out unnecessary prenatal examinations that reveal the sex of the fetus. It put an end to the billboards advertising sex-determination with the slogan: "Better Rs500 today than Rs50,000 tomorrow" (referring to the price of a dowry). But it had no effect on sex-selective abortions; no-one has ever been convicted under the law.
The 2001 census revealed a growth in the birth rate in areas with operating ultrasound machines. Some villages which lack electricity now have an amniocentesis clinic.
None of these "solutions" have addressed the underlying cause — the entrenched social and economic inequality of women. Women in India are only half as likely to be literate as men. According to the Indian National Council of Economic Research, women workers earn, on average, 75% of the wage of men who do the same work.
The largest group of women aborting female fetuses is those who already have two or more female children, but no son. More educated women, who also tend to have less children, are more likely to abort a female fetus before they have many children. One young woman in Delhi told a survey team from the KEM Hospital Research Centre in 2000 that she wanted to have a son and "get it over with" so she could keep working, and not have to keep having children.
The desire for sons has a number of causes. Poorer families want to ensure they have a worker to care for them in their old age. Among wealthy and middle-class families, many men marry women of a lower social standing, receiving a large dowry in return for the woman's family increasing slightly in social status. This exacerbates the low status of wives in the family unit, and makes daughters very expensive.
But not all reasons are economic. The desire for a son is heavily influenced by a patriarchal society that places a huge emphasis on "continuing the family line". The extreme oppression of women — who take total responsibility for domestic work and managing the household, often while still working a paid job — is justified by their supposed inferiority.
In Kerala, where women have among the highest education and wage levels in India, the difference between the number of males and females is the lowest in the country. Where women are valued as intelligent, capable and multi-skilled human beings, there is less desperation to conceive a son.
Many feminists, mostly in the First World, argue that the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act should be strengthened. But this approach, taking some reproductive control away from women, would only make things worse. It ignores the reality that women choose to abort female fetuses for compelling reasons: the social pressure on a woman without sons can be immense, and the pressure to keep having children until a son is born can ruin a woman's health or take away her freedom.
Far from increasing the birth rate, strengthening the legislation is likely to force more women into illegal abortions ("therapeutic" abortion is legal in India) or increase the murder of female infants. The hard truth is that the situation will only be turned around when the status of women is improved — through large and sustained campaigns for women's liberation.
BY ALISON DELLIT
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 31, 2002.
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