THE Republic Day parade in New Delhi last week was the first ever attended by a US president. The visit was hailed as recognition of India鈥檚 growing geopolitical importance.
Besides the tanks and fighter jets, what the Obamas saw were women, including the country鈥檚 first all-female marching battalions, a woman leading the honour guard and a re-enactment of Indian women conquering Everest in 1993. 鈥淐ongratulations, it鈥檚 a baby girl!鈥� proclaimed a float.
The float celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi鈥檚 拢10 million 鈥淪ave the daughter鈥� campaign, which aims to persuade Indian couples to stop selectively aborting female fetuses, a practice that some worry is already causing social instability in the country. Abortion is legal in India, but not on the basis of fetal sex.
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Two days after the parade, India鈥檚 highest court ordered the Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines to stop adverts for providers of prenatal sex determination from popping up alongside online searches for the procedure. Next week the court is expected to order them to block adverts in the search results themselves.
Girls have long had a hard time in India. Infanticide was historically common, especially in north and west India, as girls were expensive to keep and required a dowry, while it was the sons who supported ageing parents. This had waned by the 1950s, but in the 1970s parents began to switch to prenatal sex selection, thanks to the availability of tests such as amniocentesis, and abortion. This accelerated in the 1990s, says Arindam Nandi of the Public 午夜福利1000集合 Foundation of India, when ultrasound became available.
Using careful statistical analysis of the country鈥檚 census data, Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto . Most are aborted at five months 鈥� ultrasound at four months can detect the fetus鈥檚 sex. This could become easier with the next generation of prenatal testing, which requires only a blood test.
The search providers involved in the recent court case protest that they already comply with India鈥檚 advertising restrictions. 鈥淚n India, we do not allow ads for the promotion of prenatal gender determination or preconception sex selection,鈥� a Google spokesperson told New Scientist.
Searching for 鈥渦ltrasound Delhi鈥� in India . None mention sex determination, but many have pictures of babies and offer other kinds of ultrasound tests. A search on 鈥渋vf boy Dubai鈥� in New Delhi turned up adverts for clinics outside India that offer fetal sex tests and IVF babies of the desired sex. Both are illegal in India, but are increasingly the choice for the country鈥檚 elite, says Sabu George of the in New Delhi, who filed the court case.
And you don鈥檛 need access to the internet. 鈥淵ou can get an ultrasound in villages that don鈥檛 have clean drinking water,鈥� says Nandi. Technicians use code to tell parents what they want to know: buy pink clothes, say. 鈥淓veryone knows which clinics will tell you,鈥� says George.
鈥淵ou can get access to sex-determining ultrasound in villages that don鈥檛 have clean drinking water鈥�
A look at the shows what has happened (see maps). Normally, human societies have 950 girls for every 1000 boys aged 6 and under. For India, the number of girls per 1000 boys was 927 in 2001, and 914 in 2011. This seems a small effect but Jha says that in such a populous country it equates to millions of aborted girls.FIG-mg30074401.jpg
The practice is spreading. Skewed sex ratios are starting to show up in states such as Kerala, where female infanticide was not historically an issue but where . 鈥淚 fear it will be worse in 2021,鈥� says George, when the next census is due.
Like all modernising societies, India went from some six children per woman in the 1960s to 2.4 now. 鈥淚n the past, people just had children until they had the desired number of boys,鈥� says Nandi. Now families planning only two children feel they cannot leave boys to chance.
Sex-linked IVF
Jha has found that in families where the , with survey data from 1990 showing 906 firstborn girls per 1000 boys getting a little sister, and just 836 in 2005. If the firstborn was a boy, sex ratios among subsequent children were normal. 鈥淧eople say they just want balance in their families,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut they don鈥檛 abort second boys. Only second girls.鈥�
鈥淧eople say they want balance in their families. But they don鈥檛 abort second boys. Only girls鈥�
The effect was greater the more wealthy and educated the family was. Now, says George, affluent couples are having IVF in Dubai or Singapore and choosing male embryos. Advances in prenatal testing will also make things easier and earlier. The , as well as , have tests that sequence fetal genes from the mother鈥檚 blood in the first trimester.
The real issue, say George and other researchers, is one of human rights. But does a male-female imbalance also do social damage? An argued that societies with fewer girls and large numbers of unmarried men see more violence and instability. But some argue there is little evidence for this.
In India, recent , though this might be explained by increased crime reporting (see 鈥�Looking for a wife鈥�). Either way, we need more studies of the impact of gender imbalance, says of the Public 午夜福利1000集合 Foundation of India. 鈥淏ut we shouldn鈥檛 wait to measure the impact before we stop this happening.鈥�
Looking for a wife
Whether India鈥檚 sex imbalance is associated with more violence is debated. Either way, the situation is hurting both women and men.
Two hours鈥� drive from Delhi, where people farm sugar cane and mangoes, many say their region is becoming more violent. Its ramshackle market towns are full of clinics offering ultrasound. The area鈥檚 last census showed a mere 835 girls under 6 per 1000 boys, down from 842 in 2001. I chat to a prosperous farming family that could be a pin-up for India鈥檚 social changes: the mother is illiterate, the daughter is doing a PhD in education at a local college. The father says there is too much violence against women. He agrees there are many more boys than girls 鈥� but insists this is just natural in the area.
A local contact introduces me to a family of five brothers. Only three have married; one did so by buying a wife, a woman widowed by India鈥檚 deadly road traffic. In another household, another wife has been bought in. Neither spoke the local language on arrival; both are visibly depressed and scared to talk, and look more like servants than wives. One is five months pregnant, misses the daughter she left behind, and expects to be sterilised after this baby. She is 26.
In another house, one unmarried man seems to say his brother allows him to have sex with his wife. What the wife thinks of this can only be imagined.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚ndia鈥檚 lost daughters鈥�
