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Police find dozens of aborted female fetuses

Police in the eastern Indian state of Orissa exhumed skulls and body parts believed to be from three dozen aborted female fetuses and murdered girls in an abandoned well, a grisly find that highlights the persistence of infanticide in the country.

Officers suspect a nearby clinic performed the abortions and killed children because they were female. The owner of the clinic, Sabita Sahu, and the manager, Shyma Sahu, have been detained for questioning.

Yogesh Bahadur Khurania, a senior police official in Nayagarh District, told reporters that authorities have yet to conclusively determine the sex of the bodies unearthed.

The police raids began after the discovery nine days ago of the buried remains of seven female fetuses.

The drop in the number of girls born is believed to be in part the result of the availability of ultrasound, which allows parents to find out their baby's gender before birth. Female fetuses can then be aborted -- an illegal act in India -- rather than murdered after childbirth.

Nayagarh has a dozen private ultrasound clinics, only one of which is licensed, and has a high rate of male births.

Satish Agnihotri, a demographer who studied births in Orissa, said that new technology and increasing prosperity had combined to worsen the sex ratios. In the last census urban Orissa had only 860 girls per 1,000 boys.

The incident is only the tip of the iceberg, said Sabu George, a campaigner against female infanticide. He claims that by 2011 Indian families will be killing 1 million female children a year.

Traditionally, India's patriarchal society has preferred boys over girls. Punjab and the neighboring state of Haryana, the richest states in India, have seen sex ratios heavily skewed.

The 2001 census, the latest population data, showed that the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1,000 boys whereas in Punjab it was 798 girls to 1,000 boys in 2001, compared to 875 in 1991. The skewing of the population in favor of males has meant that brides are scarce and men must travel across the country to find a match.

George said the problem could be traced to "doctors who kill ... They take money and with the full knowledge of the parents they abort female fetuses. The question is whether the police will prosecute."
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