India: Sex selection controversy continues

A senior Indian doctor in March called on UK health officials to investigate what he says are rising numbers of British Asian women having abortions in India. 

According to gynaecologist Puneet Bedi, the women are travelling to India to have abortions if they find they are expecting girls (1). He said British GPs were referring women to clinics in India.

This claim follows a recent report in medical journal The Lancet, which estimated that as many as 10 million females may have been aborted in India in the last 20 years (2). However, the Indian Medical Association disputed the findings, saying gender selection had dropped since a court ruling in 2001 clamped down on the practice.

Also in March, it was reported that a doctor in India and his assistant have been sentenced to two years in jail for revealing the sex of a female fetus and then agreeing to abort it (3). This is the first time medical professionals have been jailed in such a case. Dr Anil Sabhani and Kartar Singh were caught in a sting operation in the northern state of Haryana. Government officials sent in three pregnant women as decoy patients to find out if the clinic would carry out abortions based on sex selection. Audio and video evidence showed the doctor telling one woman that tests had revealed that she was carrying a ‘female fetus and it would be taken care of’.

In April, the state-controlled National Commission of Women (NCW) in India called for a more stringent implementation of a law banning sex selection (4). On the occasion of World Health Day on 7 April, the NCW says it has launched what it calls a ‘fight-to-the-finish’ against the misuse of sex selection tests and abortion of female fetuses.

In May, police in the Indian state of Rajasthan launched an investigation into 21 doctors who are alleged to have been involved in aborting female fetuses (5). The move came as women’s groups marched in the state capital, Jaipur, in protest over the issue. The claims came to light when a private TV channel reported on female feticides across Rajasthan. Police have now filed cases under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT), which makes selective abortions illegal, against 21 doctors from government-run and private hospitals. The state health minister said those found guilty of such practices would be severely punished.

(1) Doctor queries Indian abortions, BBC, 8 March 2006

(2) Low male-to-female sex ratio of children born in India: national survey of 1.1 million households. Jha P, Kumar R, Vasa P, Dhingra N, Thiruchelvam D, Moineddin R. The Lancet - Vol. 367, Issue 9506, 21 January 2006, Pages 211-218; India ‘lost birth’ study disputed, BBC, 11 January 2006.

(3) India sex selection doctor jailed, BBC, 29 March 2006

(4) India to tackle female foeticide, BBC, 7 April 2006

(5) Inquiry into Rajasthan foeticides, BBC, 15 May 2006