INDIA

Government officials in India are wrestling with the problem of female feticide-the practice of aborting a female fetus. There is already a law prohibiting sex-determining tests during pregnancy in an effort to reduce the number of abortions. This law is very difficult to implement because almost every doctor has ultra-sound equipment and parents are willing to pay large sums of money for the test.


Male babies are so preferred that it is estimated by the government that more than 10 million females have been aborted or killed at birth by their parents in the last 20 years. About 50 percent of births in India take place in the home. Many families that could not find a way of determining the fetus' sex before birth, murder and bury their female new born babies.


In the Indian culture, males are seen as breadwinners. On the other hand, females are seen as burdens who require a large dowry at the time of their marriage. The world must stand together in opposition to this mentality.