Registering pregnancies may limit female feticide

India plans to register all pregnancies to help curb widespread female feticide and reduce its high infant death rate and the skewed sex ratio. Many Indian parents prefer a boy as he is seen as a future breadwinner who will take care of them in their old age, while a girl is perceived to be a burden for whom a large dowry will have to be paid at the time of marriage. This leads many Indian parents to get rid of the female fetus as soon as they get to know about it. The statistics till now show that around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in India, in the past 20 years. At present, India's infant mortality rate is 57 per 1,000 live births, which is higher than impoverished Bangladesh and Namibia and double that of Egypt. Despite a law banning sex determination tests in a country where boys are widely preferred, many parents get female fetuses aborted, taking advantage of the widespread availability of ultrasound technology and the willingness of some doctors to conduct illegal abortions for money. Others kill newly born girls by strangling them or, in some rural areas, by stuffing hay down their throats. Earlier this month, a two-day-old baby girl was found alive in a grave in southern India after being buried by her grandfather who did not want to bear the cost of bringing her up. To deal with this situation, the Women and Child Development Minister said that the government wanted to ensure that abortions are not carried out illegally to get rid of “unwanted” female fetuses. Women should be allowed to have abortion only for an acceptable and valid reason. The plan has been condemned by some activists, who feel that registering pregnancies in a country of 1.1 billion people, where more than 50 per cent women deliver children at home without medical assistance, is highly unrealistic. On the other hand, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the plan but said that the government also needed to provide more facilities for institutional deliveries in rural areas and take strict actions against doctors abetting feticide. This could be promoted by offering quality ante-natal care, good counselling to deal with complications and an efficient transportation network to women who registered their pregnancies. Other key steps that need to be taken are public awareness, empowerment of women and extension of health services, as these are pivotal in fighting infant mortality and feticide, as well as implementing the existing laws that forbid sex determination. The government has asked all rural health centres, hospitals and maternity homes to register pregnancies. It plans to increase the number of health workers who will locate and provide care to pregnant women in rural areas. With the extra information, authorities hope to get a more accurate picture of India's infant mortality rate.