|
NEW DELHI: The Indian government will award cash incentives to the
parents of baby girls in a bid to discourage the country’s mothers
from aborting female fetuses.
Under the plan, unveiled this week of
International Women’s Day, families would receive staggered
payments worth $5,000 until the girls reach age 18—provided they
go to school and don’t get married at a young age.
The government will spend 100 million rupees
($2.5 million) over the next year to kick-start the scheme, which
will help more than 100,000 girls, according to women and child
development minister Renuka Chowdhury.
India has only 927 females for every 1,000
males, far lower than the worldwide average of 1,050 females, due to
the skyrocketing number of sex-selective abortions.
The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) says India
continues to lose almost 7,000 girls every day through abortions,
while the British medical journal The Lancet says the country has
lost 10 million females over the past two decades.
Most people prefer sons who are typically
regarded as breadwinners; while girls are seen as a burden because
of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom’s family and their
earnings go to their husband’s family.
“These days no one settles for less than
150,000 rupees [$3,700],” Seema, a 30-year-old Indian housewife,
said, quoting the going dowry rate in her neighborhood. “For a
girl, there is only suffering in life.”
Even well off people who can afford a dowry
often prefer boys because girls are seen to bring financial benefits
to their in-laws, not to their parents.
One popular Indian saying goes, “Bringing up a
daughter is like watering your neighbor’s garden.”
The government plan will initially be
implemented on a test basis in seven of the country’s poorest
states but some say the rich, not the poor, are more to blame for
the high abortion rate.
“We are not scared to give birth to girls.
It’s the rich who kill them. No incentive will change their
attitude,” said Neeyasi Behera, 35, who works as a house help in
Orissa state, one of those targeted by the plan.
India has strict laws against sex-selective
abortion, but there have been only a handful of prosecutions as
medical practitioners are reputed to have made it a profitable
business.
Social activists say abortions of female fetuses
are more common among the affluent because they have better access
to medical facilities, but experts say such deep-seated prejudices
against girls exist among the rich and the poor.
The government has come under fire for other
programs set up in recent months to reduce the number of abortions,
which include setting up nationwide crèches where people can
abandon their unwanted daughters.
-- AFP
|
