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Asian Network Report: Indian-born women in England and Wales aborting girls
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Some pregnant Indian born women in England and Wales, under family
pressure to have sons, are travelling to India to abort their unborn
daughters, a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ investigation concludes.
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The investigation for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Asian Network's Asian Network Report (Monday 3 December, 6.30pm) reveals how "sex selective
abortion" – a practice outlawed in India in the Eighties, but still
widespread there – is being used by some Indian women who live in England and
Wales.
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This is a taboo subject but, for the first time, a British-born mother,
who has three daughters, admits she terminated her latest pregnancy last
year.
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Speaking anonymously, "Meena", an office worker in her thirites, tells the
Asian Network Report she had no difficulty in finding a gynaecologist in
Delhi to do a scan to establish the sex of the baby and then to have the
abortion – both illegal.
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She says: "Me and my husband decided to go to India and
try and find out what we were having and unfortunately it was another
girl. My husband and I thought the burden would probably be too much.
So we decided to terminate."
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New research reveals that between 1990 and 2005 almost 1,500 fewer girls
were born to Indian mothers, in England and Wales, than would have been
expected for that group.
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The discrepancy in birth ratios between girls
and boys is most apparent amongst those mothers having their third or
fourth child.
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The report's author, Oxford University human geographer and population
expert Sylvie Dubuc, was surprised by her findings.
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Dr Dubuc, talking
exclusively to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, said: "What I have found is that the proportion of
boys over girls has increased over time... it's increased in a way that's
not normal.
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"The most probable explanation seems to be sex selective
abortion by minority of mothers born in India."
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The 1,500 figure represents one in ten girls "missing" from the birth
statistics for Indian-born mothers having their third or fourth child.
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In an undercover investigation the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ sent a pregnant British Indian
women to several top doctors in Delhi asking for a gender scan – three
doctors agreed, in the full knowledge that she would abort the child if
it was a girl.
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Foetal surgeon, and anti-foeticide campaigner, Dr Puneed Bedi said that
British Indian women are coming in large numbers: "Most people who come
back home to their relatives here find the right doctors with the right
connections to do the foeticide."
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You can listen to the full investigation on Asian Network Report:
Britain's Missing Girls on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Asian Network at 6.30pm on Monday
3 December 2007.
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Listen to the Asian Network on digital TV, digital radio and online at bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork.
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Notes to Editors
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Figures based on a study by Dubuc, S and Coleman, Population And
Development Review 33(2) 383-400 June 2007, "An Increase in the Sex
Ratio of Births to India-born Mothers in England and Wales: Evidence for
Sex-Selective Abortion".
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DR2
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