Indian Women Protest Sex-Selective Abortions
2009-6-26 5:5
Thousands of women hold a massive rally in India protesting against an increasing number of abortions.
In some areas of India an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day, according to the United Nations.
This has led to disproportionate sex ratios where a 2001 census showed less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys.
Despite laws banning tests to determine the sex of an unborn child, the aborting of female fetuses is common in some regions of India where a preference for sons runs deep.
According to U.N. reports, there are around 5 million abortions each year in India.
[Niskata, Abortion Protestor]:
"We are here for a march for life, because here [there are many] children aborted — because they (the parents) don't have money to let them go to school, but we say don't abort girls because they also have a future. Give them a future, give them school and they'll have a good job."
But some suggest a drop in abortion levels will only happen with a change in attitude towards gender.
It's argued many in India still differentiate between boys as bread-winners and girls as a financial liability — whose parents need to pay expensive dowries when the daughters get married.
