216 babies, not one girl. As reported by the Indian news agency ANI, Sunday, July 21, official data on sex-ratio at birth in 132 villages of Uttarkashi district, capital of Uttarakhand (northern India ) reveal that only boys have been born in the last three months. What leave the administration puzzled and urge the authorities to launch an investigation to explain such a phenomenon.
For Kalpana Thakur, a social worker, "this can not be a coincidence, it clearly indicates that a female feticide is taking place in the district, the government and the administration are doing nothing," she regrets.
"Do not bring more of your girls"
Uttarakhand is one of the states in India where the government launched a campaign in 2015 to save girls and improve the efficiency of social protection services. "Do not bring any more of your daughters," implored then Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the preamble of this campaign called "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao", whose more global ambition was to correct the imbalance between men and women in the country.
This policy, which aims in particular to strengthen the fight against sex-selective abortion, comes in support of the PNDT Act (Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique Act) of 1994, prohibiting doctors to raise the sex of the future baby. A little applied measure, especially because of the existence of many clandestine clinics.
According to Bénédicte Manier, journalist and author of "When women will be gone: the elimination of women in India and Asia", interviewed by France 24, "it is difficult for the authorities to act on a phenomenon as deeply rooted in tradition".
In 2011, a study published in the medical journal The Lancet revealed that nearly 12 million female fetuses had been aborted in India in the last thirty years.
Today, although prohibited, the practice of selective abortion of female fetuses remains common, and the population gap between men and women is growing.
The dowry, main argument
"The problem is that the law tries to cope with social conditions in a technical way" says France 24Kalpana Sharma, former journalist having largely covered the issues of women's rights in India. "What must change is the value of the woman and the girl, deeply intertwined with societal customs."
For Bérénice Manier, "the preference for boys is based on religion, the preservation of patrilineal heritage, the honor of perpetuating the family name and, above all, economic reasons". The dowry to marry young girls, which has been banned in India since 1961, remains the main problem.
"These dowry transactions are worth billions of rupees each year: it's an economy in itself, growing with access to the ease of a new middle class." Not surprisingly, it's elsewhere in this social category, which practices high dots, we find the strongest selection of births. "
India, between development and tradition
Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, the capital of Delhi ... These rich areas of northern and northwestern India are among those where birth selection is more important, according to Bénédice Manier. "The patrilineal traditions are also more rooted, especially because of the strong presence of conservative castes."
"The gaze is gradually changing in the cities," says the expert from India, saying that gender equality is progressing thanks to women's access to university studies and the possibility for them to have a professional activity . "Many couples are not paying too much attention to the gender of their children."
However, the evolution is slower in the more traditional rural world, she concedes. "That said, as long as the main reason remains economic, the preference for boys will remain highly significant in India."