India to register pregnancies to fight feticide

By Kamil Zaheer

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.