No daughters…. only daughter-in-laws!

Modern technology is helping parents in Asia indulge in hideous practice – killing off their girl child. The Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act is powerful indeed, but rarely enforced. Passed, after India realised that modern medical techniques such as ultrasound scans were frequently being used to identify female fetuses - which are then aborted, the Act requires the registration of all ultrasound machines, and bans doctors from revealing the sex of the foetus to expectant parents. Abortion is legal in India but testing the gender of a foetus is not. But still, the abortions go on. The law was an attempt to reverse India's rampant use of sex-selective abortion, and the lopsided sex ratio this has produced. Till now, just one doctor has been put in prison after telling an undercover investigator that her foetus was female, and hinting that he can help her abort it. Even that was possible after a long court battle by a determined Govt. team. The difficulty in implementing the law has been that it is hard to get information, both from the doctor and the parents, because the matter is often kept secret by both the parties, as both of them believe they are benefited. This situation also toughens obtaining evidence to find the culprits.

If such trends continue, the future could be nightmarish. The existence of all those millions of frustrated Asian bachelors will boost crime and lawlessness. There is also a fear that the shortage of girls will create a hyper-macho society.

Men with money will be able to afford wives, who will quickly become a status symbol. In pockets of India, this has already begun. Sharing wives will become a trend. Often, men who think they have got a good deal on a particularly beautiful bride will sell her at a profit.

The desire for sons has created a severe shortage of marriageable young women. As their value rises, unscrupulous men are trading them around the subcontinent and beyond as if they were a mere commodity. Strict laws have been put in place to prevent the practice. Indian parents want boys because girls are seen as a heavy financial burden: the parents have to provide an expensive dowry for their weddings, while sons will bring money into the family when they marry, and have better job prospects. Also, they believe, its the sons who carry forward the family legacy and they must have sons to perform their last rites and only then will they get salvation.

In the villages of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, abortions of baby girls have become so common that the shortage of women is severe. In some parts of India, so many female foetuses have been aborted that there aren't enough women for the men to marry. The result is a thriving market in women who have been bought from poorer parts of India. Unable to find wives locally, the men have resorted to buying women from the poorer parts of India. Just 25 miles from the glitzy new shopping malls and apartment complexes of Delhi is a slave market for women. When we think of such villages, it is hard to believe we’re just an hour and a half's drive from the bright new India that is being courted as an ally by the US and attracting investors from across the world.

The worst part of the story is that even the men who go out searching for brides don’t see any connection between female foeticide and shortage of brides. After they get married, they also don’t want a girl child. But they don’t realise that the boys the are giving birth to will also face the same problem, in a much more severe manner, once they grow up. In fact, it is the mindset of the people that need to change. Otherwise, covertly these incidents of terminating pregnancy will continue to occur. Girl child is viewed as a burden in Indian society and the boy as a blessing. This is the thinking that requires transformation.