The problem of widespread sex-selection abortion in India has been known for some time. Now evidence is emerging of similar practices among Indians living in other countries. Kishwar Desai, writing recently in the Daily Mail, highlighted the problem: “for the hospital sonographer, it’s just another routine 20-week ultrasound scan. The baby is developing perfectly and, helpfully, is lying in the right position to make identification of its gender straightforward. ‘Would you like to know the sex?’ she asks. The anxious-looking Indian woman who has been staring so intently at the monitor, smiles nervously. ‘Oh yes, please,’ she says, her slight Midlands accent betraying the fact that she was born in Britain. ‘Well, you’re having a little girl. Isn’t that lovely?’
If the sonographer had been a little less tired, she might have noticed the slight hesitation before her patient’s reply, the fleeting look of desperate disappointment that crossed her face. But both are gone in a split second. ‘Oh yes, wonderful news, my husband will be pleased.’ But the woman is lying—just as hundreds of other British women of Indian origin do every year. Their husbands certainly won’t be pleased by news of another daughter. Nor, more often than not, are they. What was it daadi (grandmother) used to say? Bringing up a baby girl is like watering a neighbour’s garden. Read full story
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