...Female Selective Abortion While females in America are making great strides in gaining equality, females throughout various countries of Asia continue to be disregarded, abused, and in some occasion, aborted before birth. In fact, studies have shown that within the last two decades of the twentieth century, several million female fetuses have been aborted (Miller, 2001). Throughout these countries with high rates of Female-Selective Abortion, or FSA, one cultural similarity exists: they are all characterized as patriarchal. Among these Asian societies which are patriarchal in nature, males dominate practically all aspects of life, both public and private. Males there are seen to control the economy by having productive property, inheritance rights, and preferred employment. From a religious standpoint, these countries view males as a symbol of purity and power, while females are linked to negative notions such as impurity, danger, and a need to be controlled by males. Even culturally, males are more accepted because some of these countries, for instance China, have a preference of having a son as the first born. With so much value place upon males, many soon-to-be parents living in these countries are hopeful that their birth child will be a male. Many pregnant couples are doing whatever they can, and with the help of new technology, to ensure that they will not give birth to a female baby. In fact, evidence has shown a substantial increase in female-selective abortions since...
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...When one thinks of China it is common to conjure up images of rice fields and of the great wall, but also of crowded cities teeming with people and bicycles and cars. One rarely thinks of a nation populated mostly by men and boys, with a noticeable yet surreal absence of women. While this is a bit of an exaggeration, it has been noted over the past several decades that there is an alarmingly imbalanced sex-ratio. The policy has clearly contributed to the nation’s unnatural gender imbalance, as couples use legal and illegal means to ensure that their only child is a son. There are 117 men to each 100 women in China (Goodkind, 2004). In the 1979, when the one-child policy was enacted, the intention was not to create this imbalance, but to control the population of a rapidly growing nation. Unfortunately the one-child policy as it stands, illustrates a cultural favoritism toward males, and degradation of women to a lower social status in which they have little control of their reproductive rights. In communist China, prior to the population boom, more people meant more manpower to create more economic prospects for the communist nation. The communist government condemned birth control and banned imports of contraceptives (Attane, 2002). Lack of birth control, and government encouragement led China into a time of vast population increase. Hundreds of millions of extra children were born in a baby boom that sent the birth rate soaring to 5.8 children per couple, a level considered...
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...Determination and Sex Pre-selection. - Dr. Trupti Shah, "in our society the male child is always a precious child for a mother having three daughters. To her it is of a more value. Because of illiteracy and social customs the status of a mother would change after having a male child." The above mentioned lines are not quoted form the speech of some traditional Kathakar (preacher). These were the wording in a judgement dated 10th July 2001, by the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Ahmedabad in Complaint No. 271/1993. The Consumer Redressal Commission has delivered an order of compensation of Rs. 25,000 for medical negligence in a case that involved sex determination and subsequent abortion of a foetus, which was earlier detected as female foetus but after the abortion it was found out to be a male foetus. In addition, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission further observes, “The loss of motherhood of only male child can not be compensated by any amount." This attitude of people sitting in judiciary reflect the kind of forces we are fighting in Gujarat. The data from 2001 Census make this point much more clear. Gujarat is among the top four states (including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh) to register the most alarming declines in the number of girls in the 0-6 years category. Gujarat is one of the DEMARU states as termed by Ashish Bose. 1. Declining Sex Ratio in Gujarat Table-1: Declining Sex Ratio in 0-6 Age group | |1961 ...
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...pressured to abort the pregnancy. The one-child policy has brought many disasters to china since the one-child policy was established. First are the problems of the female abortions and the killing of infants. “As a result, abortions of females have become commonplace, as well as the killing of babies born post-partum.” China’s women must have an abortion, even if they want to keep the baby, because of the policy. “To address the problem, some districts implement a policy where, if the first born was a girl the couple could have another child. But that was no guarantee the second child wouldn’t also be a girl–creating another scenario in which an abortion might be seen as necessary.” In some places they would allow you to have another child if the first child was a girl. But they won’t assure you that your next child would be a boy and might even have an abortion. “Over the course of several decades, this has resulted in millions upon millions of abortions-many of which have been investigated by women, either by the mother, or sometimes the mother-in-law.” Over the past few years there have been many abortions. The mother or the mother-in-law convince or sometimes force the women to get an abortion. “In 2005 alone there were more than 1.1million excess birth of boys-and this despite the fact that sex selective abortions are illegal in China.” In china there are more boys conceived than girls. There are more boys than girls, 150 boys and 121 girls. Because there are more boys than...
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...status 13 Policy Constraints 14 Recommendations 15 Immediate strategy 16 Short term strategy 19 Long term strategy 20 Role of NGO’s 22 What needs to be done 24 The future 25 References 25 Abstract The rise of boy child population in India for the past twenty years parallels the experience of other Asian Countries such as China and South Korea. There were 945 girls per 1000 boys in 1991, 927 in 2001 and only 914 in 2011. India’s increasing number of rich class seems to have increased the practice of sex selection in the new technology promoted by private health sector. The new technology has aggravated the social problem of bias against girl child and continues to have caused the drastic reduction in the proportion of female children. This article focuses on appeal to government and civil society for immediate action to eliminate sex selection. The article accounts a lesson sharing experience for effective public policy responses to crisis similarly faced in the country. Introduction When a boy is born in India, friends and relatives exclaim congratulations. A son means insurance. He will inherit his father's...
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...problems, however we can not deny the fact that the world's population which is already too high would be phenomenal at this point. Thesis statement: One child policy had crashing effects on the Chinese society. However we can’t argue with the fact that the number of population will increase till impossibility without restriction of law, which have further influence to the country conditions. I. Main idea (topic sentence 1). The significant problem that appeared because of the wrong compulsion of the one-child-policy is the gender imbalance. Supporting idea A. Asian countries, including China has long traditions of son preference. B. Because of the law restriction and traditional values sex- selective abortion and female infanticide is encouraged. II. Ad interim when a culture does not have enough young generation to replace the aging members they will sooner or later run out of young workers. Supporting idea A. According to the researches by 2050, there could be two working people for every old person, compared with 13 to one now. B. Necessity of young people to strength to maintain their industries. III. Keeps of growing population destroy their economy and future in general. A. Without restriction of government according to children’s birth the number of population would have been 400 millions more. B. Because of the huge number quality of life would have been poor...
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...I’m going to talk about the idea of progress. First of all I would like to give a definition of this notion : the idea of progress is the theory that the different advances in technology, science, and social organization can produce an improvement in the human condition. That is, people can become happier in terms of quality of life (social progress) through economic development (modernization) and the application of science and technology (scientific progress). Progress implies change and evolution and throughout history most advances have been positive. However the rythm of progress seems to have accelerated over the last few decades and the technological breakthrough and scientific developments are causing some people to question this progress. Should we fear progress ? To answer this question I will present three documents. The first document I have choosen is an excerpt from “O brave new world” by Aldous Huxley. O brave new world is a dystopian novel which anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleeplearning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that combine profoundly to change society. The extract is about reproductive technology. The D.H.C (Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning) is talking about the Bokanovsky’s Progress to a group of students. Humans grow in incubators. Before this progress, they only grew one by one in incubator but with a bokanovskyfied egg it’s possible to make 96 humans grow. Later in the excerpt he ...
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...political, social, and economic level. The Chinese government estimated that it has three to four hundred million less people because of the policy and that it has prevented overpopulation, epidemics, slums, and strain on the ecosystem, but there are still controversial issues involving the one child policy. Kidnapping, female infanticide, sex selective abortion, and unequal boy girl ratio are all results of the one child policy. In order for the one child policy to continue these controversial issues need to be resolved or else it could have a negative impact on the population. These issues are results of a Chinese tradition that in order for the family name to carry on you need a son and boys are just considered to be better then girls especially in rural areas because boys can do better farm work. This tradition is not a law but many Chinese, especially in rural areas, still believe in following old traditions. The One Child Policy has made it difficult for people to follow this tradition and so they have resulted to female infanticide, sex selective abortion, and kidnapping. Female infanticide is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of a female infant and the most common form is child...
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...China was overpopulated sharply before the Chinese government provided the family planning policy of "one child per family". Because of overpopulation, the Chinese government needed to provide the family planning policy of "one child per family." However, the policy caused some side effects on the population. The results are imbalance between developed and undeveloped areas, unbalance of male and female, preference of bearing only male children and increasing of selective-sex abortions. Although China has succeeded with its “one child” policy in the eastern area, the western area of China which is undeveloped still has couples who have two or even more than three children. The eastern area’s residents who live in big cities adhere easily to “one child per a family” policy, but western area’s residents who live in rural area need more than one child. If they have only one child, they cannot be productive in their agriculture; Also the preference of bearing only male children caused an unbalance of male and female, and many illegal abortions of girls. According to Kahn, “Selective-sex abortions are illegal but widespread. China today has the most sexually skewed adolescent and young adult populations in the world; boys outnumber girls at birth by a ratio of 118 to 100, according to China’s 2000 census.” (2004,p. 2). In these problems, what is the role of the Chinese government? Actually, even...
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...“Female Foeticide” in India Female foeticide is the illegal practice of killing a foetus which is determined as a female. Female foeticide is prevalent in our country as a major social evil. The patriarchal social structure of India gives a secondary position to women. Social belief goes that the family runs through a male and hence the birth of a male child in the family is imminent to the carrying forward of its generation. Social discrimination and the preference for sons have given rise to the rate of social sex determination. Even some medical practitioners are making high incomes by determining pre-natal sex of the child and aborting foetus on the will of the parents. The practice is unlawful and demands strict punishment in form of fine or jail to the person requesting abortion of the unborn girl child as well as to the practitioner who gets the sex determined. Some kind of complications in pregnancy can also demand surgical termination of pregnancy after eight weeks of conception. This is where the termination or abortion is legal and doctors may have to suggest and opt for discontinuance of pregnancy for the sake of health of the mother carrying the unborn child. However, the technique of surgical termination is misused by some people in getting rid of the female foetus. Some people intentionally get the sex determined of the unborn child by using the technique of ultrasound and if it is determined as female foetus, they get removal done by surgery. Many societies...
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...B5: Sex Prediction and Selection SEX PREDICTION Sex prediction also termed as “prenatal sex discernment”. It is the prenatal testing for discerning the sex of a fetus before birth. A sex prediction test is a test done on or by pregnant women to determine the sex of babies. Methods: * Maternal Blood Sample to analyze the small amount of fetal DNA that can be found within, it provides the earliest post-implantation test. * Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) and Amniocentesis are two rather invasive testing procedures. These may, in principle, be formed as early as the 8th and 9th week of pregnancy. The difficulty of these tests and the risk of damage to the fetus, potentially resulting in miscarriage or congenital abnormalities (especially when done early during the pregnancy), make them quite rare during the first trimester. Amniocentesis (also referred to as amniotic fluid test or AFT) is a medical procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid, which contains fetal tissues, is sampled from the amnion or amniotic sac surrounding a developing fetus, and the fetal DNA is examined for genetic abnormalities. This process can be used for prenatal sex discernment and hence this procedure has legal restrictions in some countries. * Obstetric Ultrasonography, either transvaginally or transabdominally, can check for the sagittal sign as a marker of fetal sex. It can be performed between...
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...INDIA INFO FROM ANOTHER STUDENT: WEEK 9 Discussion 1 India, a country rich in history, is a brilliant example of what Kashima (2001) defines as cultural dynamics, which is the phenomenon of cultural stability and change, in that parts of the culture are experiencing rapid change while others are staying the same, happen simultaneously. India is a collectivist culture which is experiencing a state of juxtaposition between East and West as it starts to grow economically and globally while it fights long entrenched cultural values that are in conflict with its stated values. It has both system oriented as well as a practice oriented culture(s) in that a third gender is allowed by law but homosexuality is illegal and female infanticide, domestic violence and Dowry Deaths still occur with high rates of frequency. While the country has, and is supposed to be supported by, a democratic constitution that claims to promote equality, it has a history and culture that practices the opposite that still lingers today. India, being a collectivist culture, has historically placed great emphasis on controlling one's emotions and anger in public; however, in a study done by Raval, Raval & Becker, 2012 found that of the juveniles convicted of violent crimes, the father displayed anger and hit family members. This theme of the social non acceptance of openly displaying anger but turning a blind eye towards domestic violence can also be seen in the common terminology “Dowery Deaths”...
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...their pregnancies. Yet, even four decades later, many women are still unaware that abortion is legal. Even access to safe abortion centres is severely restricted, especially in rural areas. As a result, there is a great mismatch between the number of abortion seekers and MTP-certified providers and centres. According to a 2008 study in Contraception journal, nearly three-quarters of abortion-certified facilities are in the private sector. Add to this the stigma and discrimination that women seeking abortion face, and it is not surprising that a large number of women still turn to unskilled providers to perform abortions using unsafe methods in unsuitable settings. In 2010-11, over six lakh abortions took place in government-approved institutions. The number of unsafe abortions taking place every year is not known. According to a 2008 WHO report, about “two thirds of all abortions” that take place in the country are outside authorised health facilities. As a result, abortions cause an estimated eight per cent of maternal deaths in India — a majority of which are due to unsafe procedures — according to the Registrar General of India’s data. To complicate the situation further, the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 meant to prevent sex determination to avert female foeticide can work at odds with the MTP Act. It cannot be denied that selective abortion of girls has been increasing in India. As per 2011 census data, the sex ratio of girls...
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...many thanks to a great many people who helped and supported us during the research of this project. My deepest thanks to Lecturer, Rani D’souza the Guide of the project for guiding and correcting various documents of mine with attention and care. He has taken pain to go through the project and make necessary correction as and when needed. I express my thanks to the Principal of, [UNIVERSITY NAME & PLACE], for extending his support. I would also thank my Institution and my faculty members without whom this project would have been a distant reality. I also extend my heartfelt thanks to my family and well wishers. contents * Introduction * Sexual harassment * Dowry * Child marriage * Female infanticides and sex selective abortions * Guwahati molestation just the tip of the iceberg,crime against women up in India * Causes of crime * Effects of crime * Statistics Could be highly Misleading * New Statistics Show Crime Against Women Is On The Rise In India * Women’s Movement in India introduction The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia.[From equal status with men in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many...
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...house was compared with the advent of Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. No ceremony was considered to be complete in absence of women. The belief was that "No home is complete without a woman." Sex-selective abortion, or female foeticide, has led to a sharp drop in the ratio of girls born in contrast to boy infants in some states in India. Ultrasound technology has made it possible for pregnant women and their families to learn the gender of a foetus early in a pregnancy. Discrimination against girl infants, for several reasons, has combined with the technology to result in a rise in abortions of fetuses identified as female during ultrasound testing. The Beti Bachao campaign is supported by numerous medical organizations in India, including the Indian Medical Association.Government support at the state level has provided funding for Beti Bachao publicity activities in particular. The expenditures related to the campaign have been a source of political controversy in Madhya Pradesh, which launched its official Beti Bachao Abhiyan campaign in 2012. The campaign has reported some success in parts of India. In 2009, it was reported that in Gujarat, rates of female births increased from 802 to 882 for every 1000 male births. Beti Bachao activities were credited with this improvement. Educating a girl child is vital to the growth and development as women with more skills and learning will contribute to healthier, happier...
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