Female Foeticide: A Social Burden
Dr. Neeta Misra & Dr Geeta Chhibber
t was a bright sunny afternoon when I got a call from the
labour ward, saying that Nisha was pushing her baby
and I was needed to facilitate this process. Scrubbed
and ready to receive a new life, I encouraged her to push.
A few minutes later I held a pink, healthy, crying baby in my
arms and beamed at her with a loud congratulation. Nisha,
her face streaming with sweat and her hair matted looked
up at me with abated breath and anxiety all over. Her only
question to me–‘doctor, is it a boy or a girl?’ I responded
with euphoria–‘It’s a beautiful baby girl!’ To my chagrin, her
face clouded over and she fell back on the bed with deep
disappointment and a sense of defeat, as if she had just
lost a battle. Nature, after all, had inflicted upon her, a
terrible blow and tears began to flow down her face as she
resigned herself to this bitter reality. This is the story of
Nisha, a young girl from an upper middle class background.
Nisha is not alone. As an obstetrician, I have the ignominious task of facing the grim reality of gender bias on dayto-day basis.
I
become possible because it can be
predicted, thanks to the advances of
modern science. An ultrasound has
now become available in the most
remote rural area. In India, amniocentesis and its abuse can be traced
back to 1974. Originally developed
as a technique to diagnose chromosomal abnormalities by analysing
amniotic fluid, amnio and other such
Dr. Neeta Misra
procedures such as Chorionic Villus
Biopsy (CVB) were soon utilised to
“diagnose’’ females who could subsequently be aborted.
With this blatant use of technology, India is now engaged
in a systematic annihilation of unborn girls with Punjab and
Haryana as the worst offenders. Ironically, Haryana has the
country’s 2nd highest per capita income and it also has the
second worst sex ratio. India does not like its girls – a well
known fact hitherto hidden – is finally out in the open.
As I walked down the corridor to announce to the anxiously
awaiting fam