India To Create National Registry Of Pregnancies, Abortion To Reduce Sex-Selective Abortion, Infant Mortality

The Indian government is planning to create a national registry of all pregnancies and abortions performed in the country in an effort to curb sex-selective abortion and infant mortality, Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said on Thursday, the Hindustan Times reports (Chauhan, Hindustan Times, 7/13).

According to a UNICEF report released in December 2006, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born daily in India, and about 10 million fewer girls than expected were born in the past 20 years. The most recent Indian census figures found that the gender ratio decreased from 947 girls per 1,000 boys to 927 girls per 1,000 boys from 1991 to 2001.

The country in 1994 approved the Prenatal Determination Act, which bans the use of technologies, such as ultrasounds and sonograms, for the purpose of sex-selective abortion. The law also bans advertisements for prenatal sex determination, as well as the practice of preconception sex selection (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/18). India currently encourages pregnant women to voluntarily register with community health workers to receive health and nutrition services, an official said (Agence France-Presse, 7/13).

Government's Plan
The government would like to have public and private health centers, hospitals and maternity homes in the country to record pregnancies and abortions, Reuters reports. The government also aims to increase the number of health workers who will locate and provide care to pregnant women in rural areas (Zaheer, Reuters, 7/13). Chowdhury said that abortions will be permitted only when there is "valid and acceptable reason." According to the Hindustan Times, officials would not say what criteria would be used to determine if an abortion is "acceptable and valid."

Chowdhury said the registry also will help locate facilities that provide sex-selective abortions. An unnamed government official said that the "confidential information" recorded at the facilities "will then be passed on to local health officials who will maintain a data bank" and that the data would help officials to focus on locations that show huge gaps between the numbers of pregnancies and births (Hindustan Times, 7/13).

Reaction
Marzio Babille, UNICEF's head of health in India, said, "Registering pregnancies is good," adding, "If we act upon mothers by registering pregnancies, offering quality antenatal 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." Some family planning advocates said it is unrealistic to create registry in the country, in which 1.1 billion people live and more than 50% of pregnant women deliver children without medical assistance, Reuters reports.














"We cannot give elementary health services in a satisfactory way to most of our citizens, and to talk about registering pregnancies is ridiculous," Alok Mukhopadhyay, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India, said, adding, "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" (Reuters, 7/13). Ranjana Kumari, president of a consortium of women's groups called WomenPowerConnect, said that the plan could "lead to too much intrusion in somebody's private life," adding that the data will be difficult to obtain (Hindustan Times, 7/13).


PRI's "The World" on Friday included a discussion with Urvashi Bhuttalia, a writer and publisher on gender issues in India, about the proposal (Werman, "The World," PRI, 7/13). Audio of the segment is available online.

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