NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 25, 2001: When a study published in January of 2001 revealed that around five million procedures a year take place in India to abort female fetuses, it confirmed the reason why the male population exceeds the female one in India. Appalled by the shocking data, three organizations, UNICEF, the Indian Medical Association, and the National Commission of Women, organized a meeting with religious leaders of major faiths to put their heads together to develop a solution. Calling the practice, “a crime against humanity,” the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Jayendra Saraswati, blamed the cultural practice of dowry and family pressure to have sons for the abortions. Experts in the medical field fault the misuse of the technology, ultrasound, that will detect a female fetus.
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