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More girls were born in Delhi than boys last year for the first time, according to official figures, after parents were given cash bonuses of ￡125 for each new daughter as part of a drive to stamp out female infanticide.
Government officials cited the statistics as evidence that India is finally winning its war against the killing of unborn and baby girls, a practice estimated to account for as many as 50 million Indian women having gone “missing”, according to Unicef.
However, experts said that the improvement in Delhi was too sudden to be credible, and was likely to be the result of more families registering daughters to claim the cash benefits, rather than a genuine rise in the numbers of girls being born.
In the Indian capital, 1,004 girls were born for every 1,000 boys in 2008, according to the Chief Registrar, Births and Deaths.
The figures showed a startling jump in the ratio of girls to boys in a region that has had one of the worst records for female infanticide in the subcontinent.
In the period from 2005 to 2007, only 871 girls had been born in Delhi per 1,000 boys, according to the Registrar General.
Nesim Tumkaya, of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) said he wished the latest figures were true, but that data that showed more females than males being born defied the rules of nature – which dictate the reverse. “The figures are impossible,” he said.
Demographers consider the “natural” ratio at birth to be about 960 females per 1,000 males. Across all of India from 2005 to 2007, there were only about 900.
The skewed sex ration is the product of millions of illegal abortions of female foetuses and of the widespread murder of baby girls, experts say. Abortions are most common among rich couples who can afford ultrasound scans to illegally check their unborn baby’s sex, according to research by the UNPF.
Girls are prejudiced against largely because of the dowry system and inheritance practices tilted in favour of men. Illegal ultrasound sex tests are often advertised with catchphrases such as “spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later”.
As part of its anti-infanticide drive, the Delhi Government deposits 5,000 rupees (￡125) in the name of a girl at the time of her birth and as much as 25,000 more through the course of her childhood as long as she stays in school. The money can be used to pay for further education or for wedding expenses.
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(Agencies)
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據(jù)官方統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)，去年印度德里出生的女嬰數(shù)量首次超過(guò)男嬰，此前（政府規(guī)定）父母每生一個(gè)女孩可得到125美元的現(xiàn)金獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)，作為其反弒嬰行動(dòng)的一部分。
政府官員引用這一數(shù)據(jù)證明，印度終于取得了反弒殺未出生和幼年女嬰斗爭(zhēng)的勝利。據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)兒童基金會(huì)統(tǒng)計(jì)，弒嬰已導(dǎo)致印度約5000萬(wàn)女性“失蹤”。
然而，專家說(shuō)，德里的改變太突然以至于不夠可信，而且這一結(jié)果可能是由于更多家庭為得到現(xiàn)金獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)而申報(bào)自己生了女兒所造成，而并非出生的女嬰數(shù)量真正有所增加。
根據(jù)生死登記總處的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)，2008年，印度首都的男女出生比例為1000:1004。
這些數(shù)據(jù)顯示了該地區(qū)新生女嬰和男嬰比例的驚人提升，德里曾是印度次大陸弒殺女嬰最嚴(yán)重的地區(qū)。
根據(jù)生死登記總處數(shù)據(jù)，在2005年到2007年，德里每出生1000個(gè)男孩僅有871個(gè)女孩出生。
聯(lián)合國(guó)人口基金會(huì)的尼西姆?坦姆卡亞說(shuō)，他希望最新的數(shù)據(jù)是真實(shí)的，但是該數(shù)據(jù)所反映的出生女嬰的數(shù)量超過(guò)了男嬰有悖自然規(guī)律——應(yīng)該反過(guò)來(lái)才對(duì)。他說(shuō)：“這樣的數(shù)據(jù)是不可能的?！?/font>
人口統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)家認(rèn)為“自然的”出生率應(yīng)該是每出生1000個(gè)男嬰約有960個(gè)女嬰出生。從2005年到2007年間，整個(gè)印度出生的女嬰與男嬰比僅為900：1000。
專家稱，不平衡的性別比例是由數(shù)百萬(wàn)例非法流產(chǎn)女胎以及普遍弒殺女嬰造成的。根據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)人口基金會(huì)的調(diào)查，墮胎在富有人群中最為普遍，因?yàn)樗麄兛梢酝ㄟ^(guò)超聲波掃描來(lái)非法鑒定胎兒的性別。
女孩遭歧視主要是因?yàn)榧迠y習(xí)慣和遺產(chǎn)慣例都有利于男性。非法的超聲波性別檢測(cè)常打出“現(xiàn)在花600盧比，將來(lái)省5萬(wàn)盧比”這樣的標(biāo)語(yǔ)來(lái)做廣告。
作為反弒嬰行動(dòng)的一部分，德里市政府以女孩的名義在其出生時(shí)為其存下5000盧比（相當(dāng)于125美元），以后她只要上學(xué)，還能在整個(gè)童年期間得到2.5萬(wàn)盧比。這些錢可以用來(lái)支付她繼續(xù)接受教育或結(jié)婚的費(fèi)用。
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（英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津陳丹妮 姍姍編輯） |
A baby girl, soon after her birth in New Delhi.(Agencies)
