Archives

CALCUTTA, India, Nov 27 (AFP) - Female foeticide has increased in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal over the past decade, state health minister Suryakanta Mishra said Tuesday.

The sex ratio of girls to boys in the zero to six years age group has dropped substantially over the last ten years because of the misuse of pre-natal diagnostic tests for determining the sex of the foetus, Mishra told AFP.

"The latest census figures show that the sex ratio of girls per 1,000 boys in the age group of zero to six has fallen from 955 in 1991 to 923 in 2001," Mishra said.

"It is because the girl child is still largely unwanted by a majority of parents-to-be in the state. They are going in for prenatal sex determination tests just to have the female foetus aborted," he added.

Mishra said the West Bengal authorities had asked the federal government to ban the import of machines used for advanced sex determination tests. He said most of the ultrasound units in the state were not even registered.

Only 70 out of 102 ultrasound units were registered with legal hospitals, Mishra added.

D.K. Ghorai, a West Bengal health official, said couples preferred sons because they fetched a lavish dowry -- the sum given by a bride's family to the bridegroom's family at the time of marriage.

In May this year, India's Supreme Court directed the federal and provincial governments to enforce laws banning sex determination in order to correct the high female-male imbalance in the country.

A population count conducted in March this year reported that India had 933 women for 1,000 men, up from 927 women per 1,000 men a decade ago.  

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager