64 Reducing female feticides and infanticide problem

64.1   Overview of this chapter

The section-64.2 gives material causes behind the problem, and explains how culture\traditions are NOT the reasons at all. The next section, section-64.3, explains why Indian ku-buddheejeevies oppose and suppress discussion on material causes behind female feticide and insist on culture alone as reason. Section-64.3 gives very short description of the Gazette Notification drafts I propose to reduce the female feticide problem. The later sections gives full details of how the proposed Gazette Notifications will reduce the problem.

64.2   Why preference for male child  – support in old-age

Abortions after sex-determination are near zero in USA\West and abortions after sex-determination i.e. female feticide are very high in India. They are also high in Pakistan, China, Vietnam and many countries (see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio ).

If there are no sex-detection based abortion, then sex ratio at birth would be 950 females per 1000 males, which is the case in USA and almost all Western countries since past 100 years. But sex ratio at birth in India is 910, Pakistan it is 920, in China is 920 and in Vietnam is 930 females (in each case, females per 1000 males), which shows significant levels of female feticides,

(Aside notes :

  1. There has never been female feticide in USA, and in USA, sex ratio at birth for past 100 years has been 950 males per 1000 females. IOW, in absence of pre-birth sex-determination, the sex ratio at birth will not be 1000 females to 1000 males as many believe, but it will be 950 females to 1000 males. There are several biological reasons why number of males are naturally about 5% higher at birth for this
  2. The sex ratio at birth in India in 2011 was 910 females per 1000 males. This means about 40 feticides per 1000 female fetuses, not 90 feticides per 1000 females fetuses as many activists over-state. Of course, this 40 is also a very high number, but just to give a clear idea, I am stating that it is number of female feticides are 40 per 1000 and not 90 per 1000 as many activists over-state.
  3. There are 3 parameters wrt sex ratio : sex ratio at birth, sex ratio between age 5-10 and sex ratio of entire population. The sex ratio at birth will give level of female feticide i.e. abortion before birth. The sex ratio between age 5 years to 10 years can be further lower if there is female infanticide i.e. more female kids are dying than male kids. The female infanticide can be because parents are killing female kids i.e. explicit female infanticide or parents are paying lesser attention to health and illnesses of female kids i.e. passive female infanticide.  In any case, it is problem to be reduced. The sex ratio of entire population depends on too many factors, over and above female infanticide and female feticide. )

Now why are selective abortions near zero in USA\West and so high in India, Pakistan, China etc? The ku-buddheejeevies are always eager to show that we commons have deranged mindset. So ku-buddheejeevies quickly give one and only one reason — culture. Well, that’s nonsense as usual – there are material reasons.

The main reasons behind high rate of female feticide in India (and for that matter Pakistan, China etc) are that –

  1. there is no universal old-age pension system in India
  2. there are no cheap good old age homes in India.
  3. due to corruption in policemen\judges, it is easier for servants, criminals, workmen etc in India to rob or short-charge elders, and so more affinity for sons
  4. interface with surroundings like cross road, taking bus, paying bills etc, buying food etc is very physically too cumbersome for elderly persons

And so the young couples feel a real need for a physical human support near them when they grow old, and so there a preference for male child. There are physical reasons, not cultural.

In West, the elders need far less physical human support, there is universal pension system and free old age homes have more comforts than what a typical son would provide. So there is almost zero preference for male child over female child.

In India, life for an elderly person is a misery. Crossing road, taking a bus, buying food, negotiating with a plumber or  electrician etc are nightmares for an elderly person. And therefore every person wishes for a human support when he gets old. In the West, roads and transportation etc are designed in a way that would make life easier for elders. Food delivery is common most areas. Emergency service is at phone call. So in general, it is easier for elder to live alone in the West. And the West also created old age homes, where elders can live very comfortably for free. But in India, old age homes are either too expensive or very shabby or simply not there. To make matter worse, police\judges are so corrupt that it is trivially easy for servants etc to short-change and even rob elderly persons — something that is unthinkable in West. In West, when people consider living alone when they get old, they do not feel scared. In India, every young person is extremely scared of helplessness he will face at elderly age. So almost every person in India a feels a stronger need for a human support when he gets old. Now a daughter after marriage will go to husband’s home in all countries we know. And so most Indians feel a need for a son.

And India also doesn’t have old age pension system, and in many families, it is earning children who provide money as well as take care of other material needs (such as medicines) of parents. In most cases, females earnings go towards her husband’s family, and so again, most persons long for a male child for monetary support at elder age.

So the culture is not the reason at all. There are material factors why many Indians feel a need of  male child. And problem can be reduced by enacting law-drafts that reduce these material problems.

64.3    Why buddheejeevies cite culture alone as reason; oppose discussion on material factors?

The Indian ku-buddheejeevies insist on culture alone as reason and oppose and suppress discussion on material factors, such as old age homes, that can reduce female feticide. Why do Indian ku-buddheejeevies cite culture alone as a reason and refuse to cite that material factors like lack of old age pension and old age support are also factors? Because most ku-buddheejeevies are opposing the known law-drafts that can improve material well being of elders. So they do NOT want any focus to come on material factors and material solutions, because that would expose them before activists and citizens. Let me re-explain in different.

Say Indian ku-buddheejeevies were to allow discussion on all reasons that effect female feticide. Then the activists will see that material well-being of lonely elders is also an important reason. This would create a support for law-drafts that improve material well-being of lonely elders. Now all known law-drafts that improve material conditions of lonely elders to a substantial extent adversely effect the interests of the wealthy individuals and intellectuals. These wealthy individuals are sponsoring these ku-buddheejeevies. Eg law-draft that create pension system for elders will cut a lot of free lands and free cash that ku-buddheejeevies and elitemen get.

Now if activists start discussing law-drafts to improve material conditions of elders, they will eventually ask ku-buddheejeevies “do you support these laws or oppose these laws?”. This will force ku-buddheejeevies to disclose their stand on these proposed laws. They will either have to support these laws or oppose them. If they support these laws, then elitemen will cancel the funding and if they oppose these laws, then it will expose them expose them before activists. So Indian ku-buddheejeevies want to ensure that a discussion on material factors never comes. Which is why ku-buddheejeevies insist on focusing on the culture as the only reason and oppose\suppress discussion on other factors.

64.4    Controlling population growth and also reducing female feticide

India has 122 crore citizens now. We should not only attain zero growth rate as soon as possible, but also reduce the population to 40 crores as soon as possible. And at the same time sex ratio must be same as natural sex ratio at birth i.e. about 950 females per 1000 males. Now population control requires Govt to print drafts in Gazette which will ensure that a most couples have only 1 or 2 children. So in such case, if old age support is poor, then tendency to have male child will further increase. So Gazette Notifications printed to control population must have additional clauses that ensure that it doesn’t increase female feticide. And in addition, we must print GN drafts which reduce female feticide problem.

64.5    The law-drafts I propose reduce female feticide

Some of the Gazette Notification drafts I propose to reduce female feticide are :

  1. Print MRCM draft in the Gazette : see chap-5 for details on Mineral Royalties for Citizens and Military. MRCM creates universal pension income for elders. And the MRCM-law-draft I have proposed creates higher pension for persons who have no male child. This will reduce the need for a male child and thus reduce female feticide. Further, in the MRCM-draft, the couple with female child gets higher % of rent, and that will reduce preference for male child.
  2. Reducing stamp duty to 1% from existing 7% : so that buying and selling house becomes less expensive. This will make it possible for elderly parents who have no male child but have daughter child to sell their houses and buy\rent houses near where their daughter or other relatives live. This will make it easier for the daughter to look after her parents
  3. Enact wealth\inheritance tax to reduce instability in land prices,  and enact “competitive sale on empty plots and empty flats” law-draft  : this reduces price fluctuation in land prices, reduces hoarding and makes it easier to buy\sell houses and plots. Today, many flat-owners don’t sell house with hope that prices will rise and many potential buyers defer buying house with hope and fear that prices may fall !! But if laws decrease fluctuations in land prices and decrease instability, then a strong negative reason to delay selling and buying goes away. This will enable elderly parents to sell their homes and buy where their daughters or relatives are living. This will reduce worry people have about material support in old age.
  4. Right to Recall RBI Governor and Citizen’s Legal Tender System will decrease inflation and give price stability. Inflation is the biggest factor that worries a person about “what would happen to me in old age”. Price stability in food, clothes, medicine and other goods will reduces the fears and reduce desire of male child
  5. Jury System to over food adulteration : this makes food cooked in restaurant as hygienic as food cooked in food cooked in home and thus makes elders less dependent on children
  6. Create home delivery systems for food, medicine and as many goods as possible so that a lonely elderly person can get as many goods as possible at home without having need to go outside. In absence for home delivery systems, dependence of elders on human increases and so his desire for male child increases.
  7. Improve public transportation so that it becomes possible and easy for elders to use buses etc
  8. Enact laws enabling and requiring Govt officials to visit elderly at home so that elderly persons will need to visit lesser number of times to Govt offices for their usual govt work.
  9. Narco-tests and Jury Trial on doctors and technicians etc who do sex detection : The pre-natal sex determination will go on and on, unless Jury Trials are used and Jurors are allowed to use narco-tests on accused on which more than reasonable doubt exists.  I have explained this in detail in later sections.

The next sections of this chapter describe in detail how the proposed Gazette Notification drafts reduce female feticide problem.

64.6    How MRCM law-draft reduces female feticide

The MRCM-draft that I have proposed in chap-5,  section-5.12 has following clauses, which will decrease the female infanticide

Clause-4.7 (of proposed MRCM-law-draft) :The rent paid to citizens will be 33% higher for men above 60 and women above 55 ; and will be 66% higher for men above 75 and women above 70.clause-4.8.2 (of proposed MRCM-law-draft) :NLRO will dispatch rest of the rent collected (from mineral mines, spectrum and GoI plots) every month to the citizens of India.clause-4.9 (of proposed MRCM-law-draft) : One year after this law-draft is passed, the rent a person obtains will change as follows :°      if he is above 16 years and has (0 sons, 0 daughters), (0 son, 1 daughter), (0 sons, 2 daughters) , (0 son, 3 daughters) it will be 33% more when he is below 60 years old and will be 66% more after he is 60 years old

°      if he has (1 son, 0 daughter), (1 son, 1 daughter), (1 son, 2 daughters), it will be 33% more after he is 60 years old

°      if he has (2 sons, 0 daughter), (2 sons, 1 daughter), (1 son, 2 daughters) then it will be same – no increase and no decrease

°      if he has (2 sons, 2 daughters) or (3 sons , 1 daughter) or (1 son , 3 daughters)  the rent will be 33% less immediately after child is born

°      if he has more children than above mentioned cases, then he will get 66% less rent

Here, twins will count as one child, and adopted children will not count. And last child must be born one year after this clause is enacted.

How will these clauses reduce female infanticide?

The clause-4.7 and clause-4.8.2 give income to citizen of India till he dies. This creates a universal pension system and will reduce a citizen’s dependence on child for financial support. So his preference for male child over female child will reduce.

The clause-4.9 is easy to implement. But to understand and explain how it reduces population growth as well as female infanticide is a bit difficult task. I will use an approximation – if a person has more than 2 children, he loses 33% rent and if he has more than 4 children, he loses 66% rent, but 2 daughters count as 1 child !! Of course, this is approximate description of clause-4.9 , and not accurate.

Anecdotal evidences show that couple seldom do sex determination during first pregnancy. They are willing to accept boy or girl equally. If first child is boy, then they never do sex determination on second child. But if first child is girl, then they have tendency to go for sex determination.  But clause-4.9 will assure him of more old-age support in case second child is also female, and even if third child is female. This will reduce tendency for female feticide. And over all, the clause-4.9 will also reduce population growth. Thus clause-4.9 serves both purposes – it reduces population and also reduces female feticide.

64.7    How changes in tax laws can reduce female feticide

  1. Reducing stamp duty to 1% from existing 7% : In India, in most states, stamp duty is 7%. This makes real estate less liquid for real user. Pls note — for real user. For a speculative user, it may not matter, and also speculative buyers and sellers often use pre-sale contracts and power of attorney instead of actual sale deed. But real users need to do sale deeds and so they end up parting 7% of value. Also, reduction in stamp duty will make the real estate market more liquid and so sale\purchase will become faster. Now an elderly parent may find it better to sale his home and buy a flat close to where his daughter or other relatives live. If stamp duty is reduced to 1%, it will become less expensive and easier for him to do so. This will decrease preference for male child over female child.
  2. Enact tax laws to reduce instability in land prices : Tax laws such as wealth tax, inheritance tax, “competitive sale on empty plots and empty flats”, higher wealth tax on empty plots and flats etc law-drafts reduce land prices and also reduce instability in land prices. The proposed wealth tax law-draft enacts a wealth tax of 1% of market value above 250 sqft land per person and 500 sqft of construction per person, and senior citizen will have twice the quota. So consider a family of husband, wife, 2 children and one senior citizen parent. This will pay no tax till 1500 sqft of land and 3000 sqft of construction and thereafter need to pay 1% of market value as annual tax.
    The other proposed laws of inheritance tax, competitive sale and “easy acquisition of empty plots” will further reduce hoarding and make market more liquid. These taxes are described in chap-25 and chap41.Wealth tax, inheritance tax, competitive sale and easy acquisition of empty plot will make an owner rent or sell the flat\plot and this will increase supply and bring down the cost. These law-draft will reduces hoarding and make real estate market more liquid. These laws will reduce price fluctuation in land prices, reduces hoarding and makes it easier to buy\sell houses and plots.Today, many flat-owners don’t sell house with hope that prices will rise and many potential buyers defer buying house with hope and fear that prices may fall !! But if laws decrease fluctuations in land prices and decrease instability, then a strong negative reason to delay selling and buying goes away. Combined effect will be that it will become easy for an elderly person to sell his house and buy/rent house close to where his daughter lives. This will make it easier for his daughter to take care of her parents. And this will reduce the preference for male child over female child.
  3. Lower real estate price lowers food cost in restaurant and reduces dependence on children : In India, the ratio of costs of home cooked food to food cooked in restaurant is much higher than in USA. The main reason being cost of real estate. In any area, where real estate cost is low, the restaurant food will be closer to price to home cooked food. The proposed wealth tax, inheritance tax, competitive buying, easy acquisition of empty plots etc law-drafts reduce the real estate costs, and thus make restaurant food less expensive. This will further reduce dependence of elders on children and thus reduce preference for male child.

64.8    Other law-drafts to reduce female feticide , and how they will impact

  1. Right to Recall RBI Governor and Citizen’s Legal Tender System will decrease inflation and give price stability. Inflation is the biggest factor that worries a person about “what would happen to me in old age”. Price stability in food, clothes, medicine and other goods will reduces the old age fears and reduces the preference for male child over female child.
  2. Jury System to over food adulteration : From 1875 to 1956, cases of adulteration were often tried by Jury, and punishments were stiff because it was hard to bribe out Juries and adulteration ws low. In 1956, in order to save Jameendaari system, the then PM Jawaharlal and the then Supreme Court judges abolished Jury System. The Supreme Court judges had one more reason why they killed JurySys — the judges and relative lawyers earn more in judge system than in Jury System. The effect of killing Jury System and using judge system was – the adulteration increased because it was easy for adulterer to get away by hiring a lawyer who is relative of judges. So adulteration which was near zero during British time and till 1956 has become rampant today. So there is strong valid reason to cook food at home rather than cook food outside. This makes elders more dependent on children, and thus increases preference for male child over female child.
  3. Improve public transportation so that it becomes possible and easy for elders to use buses etc : Improve footpaths, make it compulsory for buses to stop, make it compulsory for buses to stop exactly at the designated spot, enforce queue on bus stands, make low platform buses so that it easy to climb, put bus routes maps at bus stand etc. This makes moving within city easier for elders and thus reduces their dependence on physical help, and this reduces preferences for male child over female child.
  4. Create home delivery systems for food, medicine and as many goods as possible so that a lonely elderly person can get as many goods as possible at home without having need to go outside. Eg in USA, even in 1970s, long before internet etc came in USA, almost all goods were available using phone calls. The system did not use any automated computers etc back then and was completely manual. The reason why phone shopping was popular was that US Govt had enacted a law-draft that anything sold over phone must be re-funded back minus shipping costs, if the buyer is not satisfied and this rule was enforced by Juries and a Govt agency called as Better Business Bureau, which used to set traps and punish businesses which do not follow this law. This create a huge business of home delivery of almost all goods. This reduced dependence of  elders over children, and thus decreases preference for male child over female child.
  5. Improve Govt laws so that as much Govt work, banking work etc can be done by sitting at home by writing letters or over phone. Again, this reduces need to travel and reduces dependence on children, and thus reduces preference for male child over female child.
  6. Finally, we must have Narco-tests and Jury Trial on doctors and technicians etc who do sex detection. Without Jury Trials and Narco Tests, it will be nearly impossible to reduce sex determination tests. This is explained in later section.

64.9    Narco tests and Jury Trials over doctors who do sex-determination tests

In 2001, Central and State Govts across India have made several laws which ban sex-determination tests. Did this ban reduce number of tests? Well, due to shortage of girls, the tendency to abort girl fetus was reducing anyway. Even in 2010, the average of India is only 910 females per 1000 males, and in worst off parts like Haryana, it is 840 females per 1000 males. This shows that prenatal sex-determination us rampant. Why has the law-draft failed?

The law-draft has scarred off ordinary doctors from doing tests. But if a doctor has relative who is MP or MLA or IPS or IAS or Minister or judge is doing sex-determination on rampant basis. And this relative-doctors have cornered the business and also charging 3 to 10 to 20 times more !! eg in Ahmedabad, when sex determination was legal till year 2001, the price for prenatal sex-determination was Rs 100 to Rs 300. With inflation adjustment, this would mean Rs 300 to Rs 600 , or less, because cost of equipment has not increased as general inflation. But in Ahmedabad, the pre-natal sex-determination is not only rampant, but costing Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 !!! IOW, almost same number of sex-determination tests go, but total profits have shot up and business has been cornered by relatives of Ministers, MPs, MLAs, IPS, IAS and judges.

There has been decrease in female feticide in past 8 years. But that decrease is due to lessening of dowry problem. Due to worsening of sex ratio, dowry has reduced and some communities are even seeing reverse dowry problem. So tendency for female feticide reduced. The State Governments and NGOs across India have started taking credit for the anti-pre-natal-sex-determination law-draft their passed and their “beti bachhao” (save the daughter) campaigns. This is all but nonsense. The law-draft has only raised the price relative doctors change for sex-tests, and their profits and has made no other difference.

Also, the way sex-determination is done is subtle. The doctor who does sonography will not speak a word. He will make reference to a person who is not even an employee of the hospital and will meet the couple outside hospital. The person will charge Rs 500 to Rs 5000 and say only two words such as “jai hanuman” or “jai ganhesh”. With such scant proofs, it is easy to bribe the judge via some lawyer who is relative of the judge, and get acquittal. And so sex-determination is rampant.

The solution I propose is

  1. Ban judge trial and conduct Jury Trial on offenses related to pre-natal sex-determination : the judge system reeks with nepotism , and it is very easy for a lawyer who is relative of judges to get acquittal. In case of Jury Trial, the Jurors change with every case and so nexuses don’t happen.
  2. The Jurors can order narco-test on doctor or staff if they suspect pre-natal sex-determination in more than 5 cases based on corroborative evidences

The fear of  narco-test and Jury Trial together will reduce the pre-natal sex-determination.

But as sonography machines become cheaper, smaller in size and as it becomes to easier to send image from sonography machine to computers and apply image processing software on those images, the pre-natal sex-determination will remain. And it may not decrease no matter what law-draft comes. So finally, it is necessary to make economic and other law-drafts in Gazette  that would improve old age support and decrease the need of male children over female child. Otherwise, female feticide and infanticide problem will stay.

64.10     What can YOU do to decrease female feticides?

Please read chap-13 of this book http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . It has several steps where-in you can spend 6 hours a week and help to bring TCP draft in Gazette in India. The steps involve distributing pamphlets, informing citizens on motives of leaders such as Congress MPs, BJP MPs, The Anna, Arvind Gandhi etc who oppose TCP draft, by giving newspaper ads and contesting elections. Once TCP gets printed in Gazette, using TCP, it will become easy for activists to get citizens’ opinion law-drafts necessary to reduce female feticide problem. Once law-drafts such as MRCM-draft, Jury System over Sonographists accused of sex-determination-test, Wealth tax draft, Right to Recall Police Chief drafts, etc get printed in the Gazette, female feticides will reduce.