NEW DELHI, January 30 2006
Rajinder Sharma
NRI, UK punjabi women come to India to abort their
baby girls, a report in the British newspaper, `Observer',
had come up with evidence The UK law does not allow
parents to choose sex of their babies except to avoid
certain gender-linked diseases.But sex can be disclosed
to patients if they ask during ultrasound.Abortion
on the grounds of sex is not allowed under the Abortion
Act of 1967 in the UK....Read Full Story :
Desperate British Asians fly to India to abort baby
girls
Women refused terminations on the NHS are joining
the millions of Indians who have surgery to uphold
a sons-only tradition. Dan McDougall reports from
Delhi
Sunday January 22, 2006
The Observer
Bringing up a girl, to quote a Punjabi saying, is
like watering a neighbour's garden - and it is widely
acknowledged that India's patriarchal society has
long been based on a simple need for male heirs, often
at the cost of unborn females, who are widely seen
as little more than an economic burden.
As many as 13 million female foetuses may have been
aborted in India in the past two decades following
prenatal gender checks. Hi-tech mobile ultrasound
technology, it seems, is responsible for sending millions
of women to backstreet abortion clinics across the
country.
But abortion of female foetuses has long been a part
of life in Britain and The Observer has uncovered
evidence that pregnant British Asian women, some in
effect barred by the NHS after numerous abortions,
are now coming to India for gender-defining ultrasounds
and, if they are expecting girls, terminations.
The medical procedure is called partial-birth abortion.
After around 24 weeks in the womb, two-thirds of a
full-term pregnancy, the foetus is pulled from the
mother feet first, up to the neck. The doctor then
creates a hole in the skull to take out the brain,
making it easier to collapse the head and take out
the foetus.
'We can abort at over 20 weeks pregnant and the delivery
of the foetus at that stage is difficult,' says Dr
Revati Mukundan matter-of-factly in the neat offices
of the Kalkaji Family Planning Clinic in south Delhi,
her clipped English making the matter sound clinical
and routine.
'Certainly we can do it, but we would need to have
specific grounds for the procedure, and I can assure
you a complaint about the sex of the child is not
a good reason. We have had a number of British clients,
but also clients from the Middle East and Germany.
We offer a professional and caring service.'
Behind her, in a waiting room, Ritu, 27, is fidgeting
impatiently with her scarf. This mother of two children
from Leicester has come to India while her husband,
an engineer, has stayed with his family. With her
is a cousin she barely knows. Ritu is just over 14
weeks pregnant. 'I'm here because we were already
coming on holiday to see relatives,' she says quietly,
motioning her cousin away. 'I had an ultrasound here
a few days ago. It cost about £20 and we found
out I was having a girl. My mother-in-law suggested
we aborted the baby because the family wants a boy,
but insisted we do it in Delhi. I've had an abortion
in the UK and she is worried the NHS won't let it
happen again; anyway, it is cheaper here - only £100
- and the doctors are excellent.'
Ritu says two of her aunts in Britain have had five
abortions between them in their quest for a boy. Both
were eventually refused ultrasound tests in Leicester
and had them privately.
'There are clinics in Leicester that won't identify
the sex of babies to Asian women. They have a policy,
they say, so more British Asians are coming to India
when they are pregnant to make sure everything goes
to plan. All I want to do is keep my family happy.
My husband doesn't seem to care. We already have two
daughters and he agrees with his mother that we need
a boy, so I'm going through with it; I don't have
any choice. We are going on holiday after this and
we will try again for a boy.'
There is more than anecdotal evidence that some British
Asians are timing family visits to Amritsar, Ahmedabad
and Delhi with trips to ultrasound and abortion clinics.
For many couples in the UK, under pressure from traditional
extended families, multiple abortions at home in their
quest for male heirs are seen as increasingly risky.
Another case brought to the attention of The Observer
is of Kulwant Seghal, 37, not her real name, from
Sheffield, who horrified her own relatives by going
to extreme lengths to give birth to a baby boy. Despite
having two healthy daughters, she felt barren for
not having produced a son and, above all, felt the
scrutiny of her in-laws, in the UK and India, over
her perceived failure. When she finally had a boy
after three abortions he had a mental impairment so
she is now trying for a second son.
'I might have two daughters,' she told The Observer,
'but they don't mean anything to me without a son.
Who is going to look after me and my husband, who
is going to take care of the family business? No woman
is complete without a son.'
Asked about her son's learning difficulties, Kulwant
goes quiet. A relative says she may have had four
abortions, the third on a trip to India last autumn.
Last month, Saroj Adlakha, 59, a GP, stood in the
dock with Shilpa Abrol, 20, at Birmingham magistrates'
court. The doctor, with a surgery in the King's Heath
area, is now on bail, alleged to have passed details
of a clinic in Barcelona to the young expectant mother,
who had passed the 24-week UK abortion limit.
A report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee
conceded last year: 'Some UK communities do have a
decided preference for boys over girls and permitting
such choices leads to increased opportunities for
reinforcing sexist attitudes.' It cited research at
De Montfort University, Leicester, proving that a
social need for male children, particularly among
Britons of Indian descent, was widespread.
Dr Sabu George, a gender rights expert based in New
Delhi, said aborting healthy baby girls was well documented
among British Asians, and multiple abortions for married
Indians in Britain had become increasingly common.
'The desire for boys transcends caste, social, educational
and economic status. One in seven girls in Delhi is
killed in the womb and the situation goes on in Britain,
where the belief systems are identical.
Only health centres and clinics in the UK, particularly
those in Asian communities, are now increasingly refusing
to declare the sex of unborn babies,' he said.
'It is getting complicated and becoming an issue
of a "right to know", but permissiveness
by these clinics leads to abortions and the doctors
working in them are digging their heels in. This is
why we believe more and more British Indians are coming
here for abortions.'
Another key issue is the development of gender pre-determination
technology. Senior members of the Asian community
in Scotland have called for the closure of a gender
selection clinic in Glasgow after it placed adverts
in the Punjabi press exploiting the preference for
boys.
There is little dignity to be found in the small
queue outside the entrance the Kalkaji Family Planning
clinic. Shivering in the freezing night air in thin
shalwar kameez, the painted nails and gold sandals
of the women look out of place in this Delhi suburb.
There are no men in sight. The damp, windowless basement
they are waiting to descend into has three rooms.
The teenage nurse there gave The Observer a tour earlier
in the day. Patients are met in a dark hallway and
taken to an examination room where they lie on bedsheets
stained brown with blood and urine.
Next door is the operating theatre where, under a
flickering sodium light, they are clamped on to a
medieval-looking iron operating table, padded with
a thin foam mattress. Strapped into two worn leather
leg stirrups, the patient can see jars of formaldehyde
or broken glass phials on metal surgical trays. The
last thing they see before leaving the clinic is the
thick layer of mould growing on the ceiling of the
recovery room.
The abortion costs 1,000 rupees (£13). It takes
less than an hour between the initial examination
and returning to the street. The majority of the women
in the queue are married and are giving up healthy
unborn girls under pressure from husbands or other
relatives.
Dr Puneet Bedi, a foetal medicine specialist in Delhi,
said: 'People don't look at this as a life or death
issue, or even as an ethical question. It's just an
extension of our consumer culture. If someone can
afford to buy a Mercedes, they feel they can afford
to secure themselves a son.
'There is a common saying among Indians, Ladka marey
kambakth ka; Ladki marey bhaagwaan ki (It is a fool
who loses his male child and the fortunate who loses
a girl). It's the logic these people hold and they
will keep going until they get what they want, a son.'
