Missing - 50 million women and girls
The discovery of 50 decomposed female fetuses in two wells behind a clinic run by two quacks in a small town in Punjab recently turned the spotlight on a paradox of prosperity: discrimination against girls, even before they are born, increases with wealth. It's more common among women of the upper castes and classes in India's richer states.
In contrast, a group of traditional bangle sellers - who have launched a vigorous campaign against the killing of female fetuses - are humble and relatively poor folk. 'Women activists are now ranged against a powerful mafia of doctors and private nursing homes,' says community leader Rameshwar Dayal in Rajasthan state.
Even formidable women leaders like Indira Gandhi and her daughter-in-law, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, have been unable to lessen the gender bias against girls and women. In fact, many reforms are turning out to be counterproductive. Laws to better the social and economic position of women have reinforced male prejudice. Modern methods of telling the sex of fetuses contribute to the abuse.
Despite the ban on dowries, a bride is murdered every 93 minutes, on average, because her husband or his family are dissatisfied with her trousseau.
Unicef, the UN children's fund, estimates that 50 million girls and women are missing from India's population because of systematic gender discrimination. There are fewer than 800 women per 1,000 men in India. The international female-to-male ratio is 1,050 to 1,000.
A disgruntled midwife tipped off the police about the Punjab clinic. The owners, who have been arrested, charged up to 15,000 rupees (HK$2,600) for abortions.
But a local farmer who told a reporter that 'bringing up a daughter is like watering a neighbour's garden' did not speak only for people in the deep countryside. Even many urban Indians subscribe to similar values. One Mumbai gynaecologist who treats the rich told me she always gets a gold ornament in addition to a high fee when she delivers a baby boy. For a baby girl, she gets only her fee.
Female infanticide has died out, but girls are neglected in matters of food, clothing, medicine and education. Laws permitting abortion in certain cases - pregnancy caused by rape or when childbirth can damage the mother's health - are exploited. So are scientific procedures like ultrasound scanning, amniocentesis and in vitro fertilisation. A 1994 law banning sex-selective abortions - and later preventing the use of prenatal diagnosis to determine the sex of a fetus - has not had much effect.
But women can give the necessary push to change this situation, as the 1.2 million members of the All-India Lakhera Samaj - the bangle sellers' campaign - are trying to do. They want government help to persuade women to refuse sex-determination tests, publicise the 1994 law, enforce ethics codes for doctors and nurses, and ensure better health care and freedom from superstition.
Discrimination has been eliminated in states like Kerala, which have high levels of education for girls. Ultimately, it's the only solution.
Sunanda Kisor Datta-Ray is a former editor of The Statesman in India
