ULTRASOUND Messages for August, 2001: Gender Discrimination in Ultrasound

Gender Discrimination in Ultrasound

From: ND

nirvi@satyam.net.in

Fri Aug 17 21:41:27 2001

Be warned that any remark with relation to practice of anything in India has to be taken keeping in mind the extreme variability of the country itself. Its mind boggling masses and inherent paradoxes in daily existence of life can make any comment of even the most moral nature sound amusing – and please don’t use percentages in description of events or problems in India – They are even at their best too far away from the truth to be counted. 20% of females killed, as Jeanty remarked, could be true and could be far from truth, Nay, Not for me the game of percentages in a country where the demarkation between the rich and poor, between the educated and the non-educated, between the corrupt and the non corrupt , between the moralist and the one with no morals exists in the widest patterns possible, at every level of existence, and it exists therefore in all Government and Nongovernmental percentages. And also beware of a number of organizations who live on the money from the west making little or no difference to lives of people for whom they get the aid in the first place, that is not to say that good doers do not exist – they do albeit in very scarce numbers.

Why is the need for the male child such an obsession in India? I am not sure with the answers but my reasonings, are as follows – Male Children, especially in olden days when agriculture was the main occupation were seen as added help on the field, Male Children supposedly looked after parents in old age after the daughters left because of marriage, male children carried forward the family name. Of course somewhere down the ages the dowry thing came up and got associated with giving away a certain amount of wealth at the daughters wedding. The times have changed, and many things don’t hold true in the present day job and family scenario, but the mindset on the male child has not changed and therein lies the problem. With that background on India, lets shift the focus to the problem at hand in US where expatriate Indians are supposedly making beelines for the sex choice offered to their progeny and so suddenly their dreams of the male child are about to be realized.

I think the way to this is to self educate and self reform – The individual who forms the community –therein lies the responsibility, and if it fails at that level then the community must reject that individual. I agree with all of you that USA – The land of the Free is doing great harm to itself by allowing this to happen (in the land of the free and fast buck –Rich Dempsey).

India’s Problem is that it cannot enforce the laws it advocates, but that is where the west has its advantage. I think it would serve the cause well if communities – like sonographers, physicians, human rights activists come together as one on this issue and get some kind of act/law in place. The Media ( Including newspapers which publish the advt. of these type ) should refuse giving them the mileage they need to spread the word – I am very glad this discussion has taken place on this esteemed listserver. Any sort of such discussion only improves the perspective we have on problems at hand, and can help in evolving solutions.

Dr Nirvikar Dahiya DMRD India

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