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Indians in UK travel to India to abort female fetuses11 December, 2007 Indian women residing in the United Kingdom are aborting female fetuses in their desire to have more boys. A study conducted by Oxford University indicates that 1,500 girls have gone “missing” from the birth statistics in England and Wales since 1990. Dr Sylvie Dubuc, who studies human geography and population at Oxford University, examined birth rates of different ethnic groups in England and Wales. What she found surprised her. Dr Sylvie Dubuc explains: “According to my calculation, around 1,500 girls are missing. It’s significant compared to the total number of births.” This represents one in 10 girls “missing” from the birth statistics for Indian-born women having their third or fourth child. It came to light that the proportion of boys over girls has increased over time abnormally. The most probable explanation, Dr Sylvie Dubuc said, seemed to be sex-selective abortion by a minority of mothers born in India. The study could not say exactly how many British women are traveling to India for female feticide. There is a substantial community of Indians in Britain with deep connections with India and subject to the same pressures as families in India. According to an investigation by the BBC’s Asian Network BBC, it was not just women born in India who killed female fetuses to ensure that they have a male heir. It was revealed that even some British women were doing the same. The findings were broadcast by the BBC’s Asian Network in a program titled Britain’s Missing Girls. Since many health authorities in the United Kingdom refuse to tell couples the sex of an unborn, Indian women travel to India to find out the sex of the fetus. According to the BBC, an estimated 7 million girls have gone missing from India’s population over the last 25 years. Selective abortion is happening all over India, but it has always been worst in Punjab and Gujarat, it said. The BBC’s revelation received a boost when a Punjabi local councilor from the Indian-dominant city of Leicester admitted that he practice of female feticide was rampant among Indians living in the United Kingdom. The BBC also revealed that it had used an undercover British Indian couple to find out just how easy or hard it is to persuade an Indian doctor to determine the sex of a foetus and terminate the pregnancy. The undercover couple went to Dr Mangala Telang, a leading gynecologist in Delhi. Interestingly, Dr Mangala Telang was recommended by the British High Commission as one who has publicly campaigned against the “evil crime” of female feticide. The BBC said it secretly filmed Dr Telang agreeing to perform the ultrasound scan, warning the couple not to tell anyone about what they were doing as it is illegal and agreeing to recommend a doctor to carry out an abortion if it were a female fetus.
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