| 32 million women are missing in India World sex distribution statistics show that for every 1050 women there are 1000 men. In India, where the patriarchal tradition favors male heirs, the ratio is reversed, approximately 933 to 1000. Therefore, Indian Nobel Prize laureate in economics Amartya Sen speaks of “32 million missing women.” This comes from data obtained from the census, which recorded 496 million girls and women in 2001 instead of the 528 million who should be living in India according to global statistics.
In most cases, crime is hidden behind the phantom figure. These are millions of unborn girls who are victims of abortion. Or these are babies who are killed even before receiving a birth certificate. Nowhere else, except in the north-west of India, is there such an abnormal ratio between the births of girls and boys. Demographers say: the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and part of Rajasthan, where girls disappear almost without a trace, are the Indian “Bermuda Triangle”. Delhi, with 821 girls born per 1,000 boys, holds the record, followed by Haryana with a ratio of 861 to 1,000 and Punjab - 874 to 1,000. These are the richest agricultural regions of the country, but the increase in wealth and educational level does not provide any improvement in the demographic situation, on the contrary - Among six-year-olds, according to last year's census, the ratio between boys and girls is several percentage points even more dismal. Demographers are unanimous that technological progress is only exacerbating the trend. Killing a child by smearing poisonous ointment on her nipples is traumatic even for a boy-crazy family. Ultrasound examination allows you to determine the sex of the child during pregnancy. True, there is a law prohibiting the determination of the sex of an unborn child by technical means, but the same law defines exceptions for medical reasons...
Every visitor to small towns in the vicinity of Delhi is struck by a large number of clinics and private doctors specializing in the problems of mother and child. Quite often there is no other equipment there except an ultrasound machine. However, it is not always possible to cover up traces. Dogs dig up bloody remains from garbage heaps, and parts of human embryos are constantly found there before the rainy season, when storm drains begin to be cleaned.
However, now the unborn are beginning to take revenge. There is already a severe shortage of brides in the villages of Haryana. There are many young men living there who can and want to get married, but in their 30s remain in their parents' home. Their mothers lament the lack of help with housework and the growing number of bachelors in India's family-oriented society...
Women's revenge for their unborn sisters is bitter. A state of emergency, both sexual and social, says sociologist M.S. Gill, contributes to increased crime. When the head of the Haryana government recently visited the village of Bas, 80 kilometers west of Delhi, the residents demanded not work or brides, but the construction of a prison. They wanted to save time on the long journey to the regional prison, where 300 young men from their village are imprisoned for petty crimes... Bernard IMHESLI, Tageszeitung |
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