Mothers, do you know that in India you can’t have an ultrasound check to discover the gender of the baby you are carrying. This practice has been in force from 1994. It is estimated that 10 million unborn female babies have been aborted over the last 20 years. Frightening but true. I don’t have maternal instincts but as a father I don’t understand:
- How mothers agree to kill their own daughters in the womb
- Where is the maternal urge to have children
- What is wrong with having female babies, unless you talk of the archaic reasons of dowry, schooling difficulties,employment etc
- Won’t the death of the female fetus in your be in your conscience until you die
- Who are you to decide on the fate of the unborn female child
- How can a nimble,tender,loving,soft,understanding,caring, mother become a murderess.
I cannot fathom any of this. Please help me.
NEW DELHI: A longer jail sentence along with a higher financial penalty and a 24-hour toll free number to record complaints against doctors conducting sex determination tests are among a slew of measures planned by the health ministry to tackle the hideous practice of female feticide in India.
Other measures include having designated courts to hear cases against violators of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, appointing special public prosecutors to efficiently file court cases against the guilty and sensitising the judiciary to ensure faster conviction rates.
MTNL has granted the health ministry a 10-digit toll free number 1800110500 which will be managed by a call centre. Once a complaint is received, the call centre will forward the information to the state concerned which, assisted by the National Monitoring Cell, will then conduct raids, carry investigations and prepare the legal case against doctors and institutions found to be conducting such tests.
The ministry is planning to amend the PC and PNDT Acts and introduce a graded punishment system according to which individuals found conducting sex determination tests will face a jail term of three months to three years.
The penalty, which is at present between Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh, is being enhanced to anywhere between Rs 3-7 lakh. The ministry is also planning to bring in a mandatory clause which will only allow gynaecologists, obstetricians and radiologists with a DNB degree to use ultrasound machines.
Concerned about India’s dismal rate of convictions — 450 cases filed with just 15 convictions, the ministry wants designated courts set up to specially hear cases relating to violation of PNDT rules. Workshops to sensitize the judiciary — judges of the Supreme Court and high courts with the help of the Chief Justice of India — are also being held.
Help will be sought from special public prosecutors whose sole responsibility will be to file cases and carry out investigations against those found guilty of carrying out sex determination tests.
Health minister A Ramadoss said: “India’s conviction rates are shockingly low. That’s because doctors who carry out the search and seizure operations aren’t good with filing legal cases and presenting a foolproof probe, the lack of which allows violators to go scotfree.”
Govt plans to crack down on sex determination tests-India-The Times of India
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I got married to on 28th November 2004. On the third day after my marriage, my mother in law told me that they never liked me, but they agreed to this match as a compromise. During the period that followed our marriage, I was kept under total house arrest. After I came back from hospital (where I was working), I was not even allowed to go to the local market. In the meantime, my mother in law started demanding a Honda city car, a flat, and a permanent place in my father’s clinic for my husband. However, my father being a self-made man never agreed to this. My husband frequently asked me what has he got from marrying me Then they would have given much more to their daughter in dowry. When ever my husband used to abuse me , my mother in law would tell me that I should silently listen to all abuses because I was a woman, and in their house women don’t speak. She also never allowed me to sit with my husband saying that men are allowed to come to their wives only in the night. My husband was addicted to pornography and spent most of his time watching pornography on computer.
I became pregnant in Jan2005. Verbal, physical, and mental abuses on me by my husband and my mother in law increased. I developed threatened abortion due to which I was put on strict bed rest. The refrigerator was shifted downstairs so that I was dependent even for water or food. My husband went to the extent of asking me to ask my father for one patient for every night he spends with me, failing which my mother in law banned that I could not close the doors of the bedroom at night. Though I was on complete bed rest as adviced by doctors due to threatened abortion, I was expected to do all the household work, as there was no servant in the house.
An ultrasound conducted in 6th week of pregnancy showed that I was carrying twin babies. Then my mother in law started demanding sex determination. My in laws and husband got that done by deception. They knew I was allergic to egg. The fed me egg laden cake, telling me that it was egg less. When I became sick I wanted to have treatment with consent of my husband at home, but he took me a hospital. He and his mother accompanied me. They got me admitted there, and then gave a call to my mother asking her to come. The doctor advised K.U.B (Kidney, ureter, bladder).ultrasound, but the report mentions K.U.B. only in two lines, rest all is fetal ultrasound. Then they started demanding that I get an M.T.P. My mother in law asked me many times to at least get one child killed in utero. I was kept without food and water. My husband was totally ignoring me and was indulging in watching pornography all the time. My husband once, on my protesting against his addiction to pornography, turned me out of the house at 10.p.m. in the night and asked me to go to my fathers house. He said “ja aapne baap ke ghar ja” when I asked him to at least take my mobile, or my car keys, as where I would go in pregnancy, to which he replied “is ghar se kisi cheez ko haath lagaya to thapar parega”. after one such verbal abuse throughout the night, I developed bleeding and threatened abortion, I was not even allowed to call up my parents for medical help. I managed to call up my father in the morning. After much persuasion by my father, my husband agreed to take me to the nursing home, but he drove too rashly on the entire drive .Thrice they tried to kill me or at least get me aborted after which my father brought me back to my parent’s home.
My mother in law told me that two daughters would be a big burden on them, and that I should give one of them up for adoption, get them aborted, or at least one of them killed.
My in laws and husband hardly ever accompanied me for antenatal tests or hospital visits after they came to know I am carrying daughters. My mother did all that. My husband would frequently fight with me even in my parents house .He demanded D.N.A test because his mother had told him that some priest had told them that he would be father of one son only. Despite all this tensions, I delivered two-pre term daughters. My in laws never visited me for full 9 days. Then my sister in laws , my mother in law, and my father in law came to visit me. One of my aunts congratulated my sisters in law. They said “God forbid, we ever become bhuas of girls again” .My mother in law said, “Anyway, they are born in seventh month so they are not going to survive anyway”.. My mother in law deliberately pushed down my 4-month-old daughter from the staircase and pretended it was an accident. Fortunately I was able to hold her carrying cot and save her harm. They never showed any love or affection towards them. Their grandparents & aunts, have rejected them totally.
At this stage I met Dr Bijaya Laxmi Nanda, who helped me file a case in crime against women cell. She encouraged me in getting a profession and supporting myself and my daughters.
My sister in law s marriage got fixed up in Jan07. In order that there is no hindrance to her marriage getting fixed, I had allowed my complaint file to be temporarily closed. Before her marriage, my sister in law had demanded that my parents give her a Honda city car in her marriage as a gift. I resisted this demand to which my father in law asked me “what is your father doing with three cars? Why can’t he give one nice luxury car to us?”
My husband has never lifted his voice against the injustice being done to his wife and children. On the other hand, he has several times fought with me over the demands made by them. He has been fighting with me whenever I would ask for more time, money, or mental and emotional support for children and me. He has never tried that his parents and sisters accept my children and me.
As an Indian woman, I am also under a lot of social pressure to return to my husband.
So when S.H.O. also asked me to take a separate house with my husband and live with him and my husband verbally promised me to mend his ways, and agreed to take full responsibility for our safety and security if I shift with him. He asked for one last chance to mend his ways. I was tempted to give him that chance for the sake of my daughters. My husband started calling me a prostitute and said that I go for “dhandha” every evening & that is how I am buying new clothes for my self and my children.
My husband had put two conditions on me for me to settle into a separate house with him. The conditions are
1) that I break away from all my relatives including my parents and siblings
2) my husband is pressurizing me to file a false against his brother in law- against whom they have filed a case under domestic violence act
3) He asked for a Honda city car from one of my cousins, as a payment to settle my life.
4) He asked me to withdraw all complaints made by me against him and his family members.
After much persuasion by friends and family, my husband agreed to take me into the rented accommodation without any conditions. I settled the whole home. On the first night itself that I shifted with my husband I was turned out in the middle of the night
After being turned out, I went to the local police station. The police refused to register the complaint and made me sit there with my father for 3 hours. Then they took a written complaint, but till date no action has been done on that.
I wrote to various organizations and campaigners working on the issue of female feticide, but everybody turned me away because three years had passed. Nobody understood that it is not easy for Indian women to revolt against her husband. Many campaigners refused to take up the case and support me because they felt that I would reconcile with my husband and withdraw the case. One of the campaigners also told me that if you file this case you will be bribed, threatened etc to withdraw the case because the hospital belongs to mafia people. I became frightened for my little daughters whom I had been trying to save in the past three years. So I decided not to file the case.
Meantime Mrs Bijaya Laxmi Nanda offered to file the case on my behalf, but she was told by the authorities that she could not do so, and they would take no action unless I myself file the case, and that I have to give an affidavit that I won’t withdraw the case under any pressure.
As I did not want to endanger the lives of my daughters any more, I was in a dilemma, as to weather I should file the case. I asked the authorities who would be responsible for my safety and security. I got the reply it was none of their responsibility.
As the hospital where the sex determination was done, belonged to some rich and powerful people, nobody was ready to take a stand against them.
Even after more than one and a half month after complaining to the authorities at all levels from district, to state to central level, no action was taken etc, I finally filed it under R.T.I as to what action in being taken.
In the meantime many educated people some of them doctors, have remarked to me-so what had you got your daughters aborted at least they would not have to face the stigma of growing with a single parent, at least today you would have been sitting in your in laws house etc.
I am decided to at least come forward with the story, when I read in the newspaper about woman killing her two daughters by drowning them, and another woman killing herself for not being able to bear sons. I want to tell them give birth to your daughters. They are the reason I am alive today, they are the reason for me to be fighting this and it covers up for everything when after a long day I get two little hands extended in a hug and a we love you mom.
Hi mitu,
Hope to reply you soon.
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[...] that feticide is on an alarming increase in Kerala.Insidekerala.com – http://insidekerala.com/|||Female Feticide In India2008年5月3日 投稿者: aarvidi Mothers, do you know that in India you can’t have an ultrasound [...]