The above title might suggest to you an Agatha Christie story plot but the truth is far more spine-chilling and blood-curdling. In this bad world where we live in hope of finding our dreams, in search for true happiness, holding on to the faith that goodness still remains somewhere, it shocks the soul to learn that even a mother’s womb, which is supposed to be the safest place for a baby dose not remain so anymore due to some greedy doctor’s malicious intentions and male biased mentality of the Indian people.

FIVE MILLION GIRLS were eliminated between 1986 and 2001 because of foetal sex determination done by unethical medical professionals. The rate of extermination continued to increase after census 2001. Sex determination and sex selective abortion was traced to an Amritsar clinic in 1979 and has now grown into an Rs.1000 crore country wide industry but nothing much has been done about it so far. In 1994 Parliament responded to the misuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques by enacting PNDT Act but it has not succeded in checking this inhuman practice.

Efforts of the media have certainly contributed to the increased public discourse on this issue over the years. Today reports of female foetuses found in drains or dug from dry wells or floating in lakes or eaten by dogs are shockingly the regular headlines.

There have been stories on the consequences like trafficking of women for marriage and emergence of polyandry. The practice of buying wives from the east is widely prevalent in Punjab which has one of the lowest sex ratios in the country. The waning F/M sex ratio clearly suggests that if this rampant murder of girls continue unchecked in a few more years there will hardly be any girls left in India.

Despite a law banning sex selective abortion being in force for decade, as many as million female foetuses are aborted each year in the country. Hundreds of clinics in the lanes and by-lanes of the capital carry out sex determination tests illegal though a board outside the clinic reads “ No sex determination tests done here”. To cite a couple of more examples, of many, the recovery of pieces of bones of newly bone female fetuses from a hospital backyard in Ratlam district of Madhya pradesh in February this year. And bodies of more than 100 fetues found outside an abortion clinic in Pattran town in punjab in August last year were both deplorable.

Case histories like these should make us think a hundred times before we call ourselves citizens of a developed progressive nation of the 21st century trying to live with the illusion that we are at par with the developed giants of the world.

Reasons for selective abortions are many,from carrying the family name forward,lighting the funeral pyre to hoping for a male breadwinner in the family.But the reason which tops the list is dowry-the parents fear they would become bankrupt at the time of their daughter’s marriage so they prefer bringing up a male child.In many families even the mother is forced to abort the foetus by their in-laws if it turns out to be a female and they have to bear great mental and physical pain if they refuse to do so.

THE WORLD Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap report for the year 2007 has shown India at a dismal 120th position. Inspite of the tremendous progress in various fields of science, recent government figures show that in high-income South Delhi, the sex-ratio was 762, while in Mumbai’s Borivali it was 728 and 887 in Goregaon and Andheri West, providing proof that high levels of literacy and per capita incomes have no bearing on the mindset of people.The education which doesnot make us human-beings,which fails to enlighten our minds and liberate us from prejudices can hardly be called so.

Infact it is now proven that it is the high-income families with increased access to techniques of sex-determination are actually the ones which are going for sex-selective abortions rather than low-income group-areas.It is a matter of great disgrace that our fast progressing nation which boasts of a great culture is home to such shameful practices.After all this can we call ourselves civilized people?

Is this progress?In fact such a practice makes me think are we human at all or devil in disguise who doesn’t hesitate to end an innocent life. Yes we indeed have progressed, progressed from infanticide to foeticide-previously the new-born infants were strangled by pillow or killed by rubbing poison on the mother’s breasts and now they are killed in the womb itself with the help of advanced technology.

One of the major steps to curb this practice is to eliminate the major cause behind this i.e. dowry. This would require strict implementation of the Anti-Dowry laws which remains till date universally ignored along with severe action against those who violate it.”The police department specifically should be dealt with strictly and made corruption-free.

At times when the FIRs are filed by the girl’s family against her husband and in-laws for dowry-related atrocities,the groom’s family manages to bribe the police and make an easy escape”,said Manju S Hembrom, mamber, Natinal Commision for Women. But we can’t sit with our hands folded waiting for just the government to deal with it.As citizens of this country I think its high time for us to arise,awake and act. I make an earnest appeal to all the young people to come forward in order to eradicate this evil practice.

If it comes to your knowledge that anyone in your family or neighborhood is going for female fetus abortion, try to make him/her understand the heinous nature of the crime he is committing and make him understand the worth of a girl. If you somehow find out that doctors in any hospital or private clinic is practicing this undercover don’t hesitate to launch an FIR against him.

It’s a shame that in a country where we worship Shakti or the female form of Almighty, the very existence of the females is being threatened. If this macabre practice continues it would spell doom for our future generations.