PERCEPTION REGARDING FEMALE FETICIDE AMONG FEMALES ATTENDING OUT PATIENT DEPARTMENTS OF SELECTED HOSPITAL OF LUDHIANA CITY

Introduction :

Female feticide is an extreme manifest of violence against women. In India feticide, especially female feticide & sex selections are the worst conditions. It tends to be serious decline in sex ratio in states of India. A sloka of Atharvaveda says “The birth of a girl, grant it elsewhere. Here, grant a son.” Thousands of years later, this thing stands very true in modern times as well, when, despite the so called modernity, industrialization, literacy and equality, parents still pray the same. (Nilanjana Mukherjee)1

Female feticide is a major social problem in India and has cultural connection with the dowry system that is ingrained in Indian culture, despite the fact that it has been prohibited by law since 1961. In India, a strong preference for sons exists by abuse of medical technologies. Pregnancies are planned by restoring to differential contraception. Contraception used is based on the number of surviving sons irrespective of family size. Following conception, fetal sex is determined by prenatal diagnostic techniques after which fit female fetus are aborted. (Das Gupta)2

The preference for a male child and discrimination against the female child are causing the rapid disappearance of female children in India. 35 million females were found to be missing according to the census of 2001, which was 32 million during 1991. 3 As per the census of 2011, the child sex ratio of India has declined from 927 to 914 females per 1000 males, which is the lowest since the country's independence4. The inhabitants of Punjab, who pioneered the green revolution in the last century, are now heading for a devastating economic and social fall out in the near future due to sharply declining (882 in 1991; 874 in 2001) sex ratio.

In India, a women's status is associated not only with her reproductive capability but also on her success in delivering a male child, which enhances women's will to give birth to a male child (Baligar PV)5. However, females can play a significant role to curb this evil, as they are primary person to carry female fetus in their womb. Therefore, present study was conducted to assess perception of females on female feticide.

Materials and Methods :

The cross sectional study was conducted in the outpatient departments of selected Hospital, Ludhiana. Eligibility criteria for inclusion included OPD female patients who can understand or read Punjabi language, and are willing to participate in the study. Two hundred fifty female patients attending medical and surgical OPD's were recruited in the study by using simple random sampling. Information was collected byadministeringa pretested questionnaire to the subjects. Questionnaire consisted questions regarding perception of females related to ideal family size, male child preference, reasons for male child preference, reason for less preference for female child, reason for the practice of female feticide, view point supporting and against female feticide. Before finalizing the questionnaire, pretesting was done on 10% of females to see appropriateness of tool and based on it necessary changes were made, and then the questionnaire was administered to the study subjects. The subjects were not permitted to communicate with each other. Data were entered and analyzed by means of simple comparisons and proportions

Results and Discussion:

Maximum 59.2% subjects were in age group of 21-40 years followed by 30.4% subject in 41-60 years of age group and least 10.4% subjects were in age group of > 60 years. Maximum 60% of subjects studied below graduation and 40% were with educational status of graduation and above. Majority 90.4% of subjects were married, 8.4% were unmarried however only 1.2% of subjects were divorced. Maximum 74.8% of the subjects were homemaker followed by 17.2% doing service and least 8% were businesspersons. Majority 93.6% of the subjects perceived one boy and one girl as ideal family size (Table 1). Maximum 80.80% (202) of subjects agreed to the statement that male child are being more preferred in the society. Among them, 32.1%, 31.6% and 31.1% of the subjects perceived male child are important to run a family, they carry name of family and they take care of patents in old age respectively as the reasons for male child preference (Table 2). A.H. Gilany and E.Shady conducted a similar study to measure determinants and causes of son preference among women delivering in Mansoura, Egypt. The main reason found for son child preference over girl child were that the male child inherit family business/land (37.7%), contribute to family income (33.3%), help family in business/land (45.2%), provide Old age care/support (21.5%) and Continue family name (14.5%).

Majority 72% (180) of the study subjects agreed to the statement that the female child is being less preferred. Among these maximum 35% and 33.9% of subject perceived dowry system and increase crime towards girls as the reasons for less preference of female child. However 19.5% of the subject had a view point that female child are considered as burden on family, which enhances female feticide practice (Table 3). Srivastava et al. (2005) interviewed 200 married men and women to elicit their attitude towards the girl child and the declining sex ratio in Bhopal. The study found that the reasons for not wanting girls include that bringing up girls is a costly affairs and a wasted investment, they have to be married off, arranging for dowry is difficult, there is fear of providing safety even inside home, and she is subjected to harassments.

Maximum 40.4% (101) of the study subjects had viewpoint that illiteracy is responsible for female feticide. Poverty (19.6%) and family pressure with rituals and customs (17.2%) were also perceived as contributory factors for this evil. However, least 11.4% each believed that determination of sex and desire of son are responsible for female feticide. Maximum 91.6% (229) subjects responded that practice of female feticide is morally wrong, however 8.4% (21) responded that practice of female feticide is morally right. Females who were in favor of this practice supported this reason that it is easy to rear up male child than female child (33.3%), boys are important to run a family(28.6%) and multiple girl child can cause burden on the family(23.8%). (Table 4) Females opposing this practice perceived that girls deserve equal status in family (38.9%), girls are important part of society (24.9%) and girls are more responsible towards parents and family (16.6%). (Table 5) Shashi Manhas and Jabina Banoo in their attempt to study the perception and beliefs regarding female feticide among Muslim community of Jammu found that majority of fathers (96%) and mothers (82%) believes that female feticide is morally wrong. However, (18 %) mothers responded that it is morally right (4%) fathers responded that there is no harm in this practice.

Maximum 82.4% (206) of the study subjects perceived that female feticide has harmful impact on society. Among these 36.8% and 29.1% opinioned that social problems in society and marriage problems for males will arise due to female feticide respectively. (Table 6) However, 17.6% of the subjects perceived female feticide as beneficial to the society. They support this belief with reasons, as female feticide will decrease crime towards females (15.9%), decrease population (38.6%), and increase power of females in the society (15.9%). (Table 7)

Majority 96% females responded that female feticide has an impacts on mothers as it arise psychological problems among mothers (55.2%), develop feeling of guilt or crime among mothers (36.4%), and can cause behavioral changes in mothers(4.4%). Majority 98% (245) subjects had an opinion that female feticide can be stopped by taking various measures. (Table 9)

Conclusion and Recommendations :

The study reveals that majority females have awareness about causes and harmful impact of female feticide, and oppose this evil practice. However, maximum females have an opinion that Government should strictly enforce laws against female feticide and punish people and doctors involved in this practice. In addition to this, efforts should be taken to create awareness regarding this issue and to ensure equal status among men and women. As females are important stakeholders in elimination of the practice of female feticide, it is recommended that this group should be equipped with ample amount of knowledge so that they can act as change mediators in the society.