India to register pregnancies to fight feticide

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to create a registry of all pregnancies to help curb widespread female feticide and reduce its high infant mortality rate, although activists say the scheme will be hard to implement.

"With this, mysterious abortions will become difficult," Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury told the Hindustan Times.

The government wanted to ensure that abortions -- often carried out illegally with the aim of doing away with unwanted female fetuses -- were done for an "acceptable and valid reason", she said.

"This will help to check both feticide and infant mortality."

Around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, the government says.

Despite a law banning sex determination tests in a country where boys are widely preferred, many parents get female fetuses aborted, taking advantage of the widespread availability of ultrasound technology and the willingness of some doctors to conduct illegal abortions for money.

Others kill newly born girls by breaking their necks or, in some rural areas, by stuffing hay down their throats.

Earlier this month, a two-day-old baby girl was found alive in a grave in southern India after being buried by her grandfather who did not want to bear the cost of bringing her up.

WRONG FOCUS?

Some activists said the government's plan to create a pregnancy register in a country of 1.1 billion people -- where more than 50 percent of women deliver children at home without medical assistance -- was unrealistic.

"We cannot give elementary health services in a satisfactory way to most of our citizens, and to talk about registering pregnancies is ridiculous," said Alok Mukhopadhyay, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India.

"Public awareness, empowerment of women and extension of health services are key in fighting infant mortality and feticide, as well as implementing the existing laws that forbid sex determination."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the plan but said the government also needed to provide more facilities for institutional deliveries in rural areas and crack down harder on doctors abetting feticide.

"Registering pregnancies is good," said Marzio Babille, UNICEF's head of health in India.

"If we act upon mothers by registering pregnancies, offering quality ante-natal care, good counseling to deal with complications and an efficient transportation network ... this would enormously help promote institutional deliveries and strengthen and expand the safe maternity scheme," Babille added.

At present, India's infant mortality rate is 57 per 1,000 live births, which is higher than impoverished Bangladesh and Namibia and double that of Egypt.

"We should be ashamed," Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told senior health bureaucrats on Thursday.

The government wants all rural health centers, hospitals and maternity homes to register pregnancies. It plans to increase the number of health workers who will locate and provide care to pregnant women in rural areas.

With the extra information, authorities hope to get a more accurate picture of India's infant mortality rate.

Many Indian parents prefer a boy as he is seen as a future breadwinner who will take care of them in their old age, while a girl is perceived to be a burden for whom a large dowry will have to paid at the time of marriage.