Source: Times of India
BANGALORE, INDIA, December 8, 2002: Women too will henceforth be punished with three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 if they undergo sex-determination test, if the National Committee on Empowerment of Women have their say. In more than 98 per cent of the cases, pregnant women are forced by their families to terminate or abort the foetus if it is a girl child. Yet, the National Committee on Empowerment of Women has recommended that these women too be punished. How can the government punish the woman for no fault of hers, this article asks, when more often than not, she is forced by her family to undertake the sex-selection test. “The woman’s marriage is at stake if she refuses,” said Sabu George of the Center for Women Studies Development, Delhi. George said, “The government must prevent doctors from indulging in such unethical practices rather than punish hapless women.” The organization has decided to take legal action against the committee. But Committee Chairperson Margaret Alva justified the punishment for women saying, “The mother is a collaborator in the entire process of eliminating the girl child. It is wrong to say that the majority of women who undergo sex-determination tests are illiterate and poor. It is the educated who undergo the test. A woman should have some kind of sensitivity. Punishing the woman will instill fear in her family, which will contribute towards ending the menace of female infanticide,” she told the Sunday Times of India from Delhi.