My title may be a bit inflammatory, but deservedly so I thing. Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote about India’s Lost Girls. The discussion that followed about the practice in India of gender selection through abortion, was quite interesting and evoked many strong opinions. It now seems that this practice has long since spread like a disease from the old world to the new. The Observer reports on its own investigation [link via Pickled Politics]:
… 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……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.
This just drives home one of the most significant points from the Lancet article referenced in my post two weeks ago. It is educated women that are doing this, and not just poor village girls that don’t know any better, as many of us long assumed. Even in Britain, it is the “social security argument” that justifies these actions in the minds of the families engaging in this practice:
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…’
Woah this is news to me. I’d like to read up more on this. Do you have any links or sources? I can hunt for it as well.
Janeofalltrades, I dont have a link to South African case law. But I will hunt for it! I am sure the British case law is more accessible. Will let you know.
And now an interesting tidbit, while practicing law in South Africa some years back, a colleague of mine had an interesting case. ParentÂ’s that were suing their son. They claimed they had supported their son through university and sold their house to finance his business venture, moved into his house, with his wife and kids (come on you know what happened next, why? cos it happens all over!) and shortly after that the parents were thrown out. They were left destitute. Case was heard, verdict for parents.
Not a very legally sound case
I am not so sure. In this particular South African case, promissory estoppel might apply especially as the son must have promised xyz and there certainly was detrimental reliance here on the parents side as they moved and financed the son to their detriment in the hope that the son would keep his promise.
Well this is my 1st ever post on this board, as I’m just getting touch with my punjabi/indian roots. I’m from western Canada and grew up in part of Canada where there were only a few other indian people.
But 3 years ago I moved to Vancouver area and was in for a shock at how backward the punjabi’people are here. These people here don’t mix at all with any one who isn’t punjabi. Alot of them are stuck with the idea of living in 1950 punjab.
The sexism here in the punjabi community is joke. You have 16 year old boy getting new cars for passing grade 10 and girls can’t do anything till the finish college.
As for abortion in canada among desi with female fetus. Yes it does happen alot. When a boy is born everybody celebrates and when a girl is born everybody sad.
I have alot of cousins in the US and most of them are educated and more understanding of the fact they don’t live in india. So in most part US desi’s are more westernized then they are in Canada. But there are few area’s that have high punjabi’s population’s were they stick to there backward roots.
This is sad to say since i’m punjabi background. In north america that punjabi desi’s are the ones who are the most to stay backward.
I think what happens in the case of UK Punjabi ghettoes or their equivalents in Canada (Surrey, BC or Malton, Ontario for example) and the US (towns thoughout the Central Valley of California for example) is that you have high concentrations of people from village backgrounds living in close proximity and forming their own social universe. Interactions with others are minimal and mostly related to work or other business/service transactions. In one way, these immigrants are AMAZINGLY gifted…they somehow have the ability to thrive and survive in the West without the higher education and professional backgrounds of desi immigrants who were already doctors/engineers etc. A lot of times they live in big comfortable houses and drive BMWs and Hummers. Probably only Punjab and Gujarat can send raw villagers to the West and have them do well…I doubt uneducated villagers from UP/Bihar, South India or for that matter anywhere else would be able to survive here. On the other hand, once the ghettoes are formed (again, some of these ghettoes are pretty nice, especially in Canada, very pleasant and suburban) these people are less equipped to deal with social change than other desis and as a reaction to the western world beating at their doors, tend to become extra-conservative. And they have each other’s approval…after all they don’t really care what John Smith thinks about them, they do care what Joginder Singh next door thinks about them. In England, this situation has gone on for a longer time, and it’s now often 2nd/3rd genners (some who are middle-aged) calling the shots. The ones who still live in the areas where they grew up, like Southall, can be incredibly socially conservative despite being British. As far as aborting female fetuses is concerned, I have no data on that one way or the other.
go watch manish jha’s mathrubhoomi. it’s the answer to the above question.
Does anyone have information on whether the practice occurs more frequently in joint families living together? I suspect that there are more joint families in the UK.
Very interesting analysis – Amitabh. I can see it happen around us here in California and is preety common in Punjabi and Gujrati families.
Does anyone know of any organization in New Delhi that is Pro-Life and trys to prevent abortions of all kinds, male or female?? Although females are more frequently aborted unfortunately so are male children. Also, as a nurse I know that many times the ultrasound tests are not always going to be right. Sometimes the picture is difficult to read or the baby could be positoned in a way that the ultrasound can not be read. By the time the sex can be determined by unltrasound women who abort their baby are far along in the pregnancy increasing the risk for hemorrhage, lacerated uterus, emergency and even death to the mother. Many women in India are aborting a baby that they have been falsely told was a female. In India many abortions are done by untrained people. Abortionists will stop at nothing to make sure they kill a child for $$$ even if it means lying about the sex, pressureing the woman to have an abortion etc.. These are all reasons I am against abortions of all kinds and hope to find an organization in Delhi that believes the same.
Does she realize that nowadays boys also doesn’t take care of their parents and can go away and only come for her funeral only. I personally know of a girl who after having a baby girl went for three abortions and finally managed to get a boy. By that time she also had cancer in her stomach and survived luckily.
It should also be noted that one of the main reasons cited for armed resistance by hindus against british imperialists was the fact that the british actually banned the hindu religious rite of cremating women alive along with their dead husbands. you wont hear of many hindus mentioning this hastily forgotten evil practice.