For South Asian women, bias now begins before birth, U.N. finds

December 15, 2000
Web posted at: 8:49 AM HKT (0049 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Medical advances that can establish the gender of a fetus have led to more abortions of baby girls in South Asia, contributing to millions of female deaths because of discrimination, a report on Thursday said.

The growing use of ultrasound and amniocentesis to screen babies' health in the womb enables parents to learn their offspring's sex early in pregnancy, facilitating abortions that target female fetuses.

These, along with infanticide and the preference given male babies in the region in dishing out food, have meant 79 million female deaths in the region attributable to discrimination, said the 2000 Report on Human Development in South Asia.

The report, issued five years after the landmark U.N. Women's Conference in Beijing, found that South Asian women have made little improvement in their status despite government commitments to work toward eliminating inequality.

The report was compiled by the Mahbub Ul Haq Human Development Center in Pakistan with funding by the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. Population Fund, and donations from Canada, Norway and the Aga-Khan Foundation-Canada.

The survey of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives said some 79 million women were "missing in South Asia" due to discrimination against females, both before and after birth.

In South Asia, "women in general are disadvantaged, simply because they are women," said Khadija Haq, president of the Islamabad-based center.

Although women in the region work longer hours than men, they are practically invisible in the economy, earning just 30 percent of what men bring home for the same work.

The literacy rate for women and girls is 37 percent, the lowest female literacy rate among all the world's regions, the report said. But it noted that the leaders in literacy in South Asia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, provided equal education for girls and boys.

Violence against women was also commonplace, with the justice system "out of reach for most women, based on their low social status, lack of education and limited public mobility."

The report said South Asian nations should protect equality under the law, provide equal health care and educational opportunity and end job discrimination and sexual harassment.

The report based its findings of 79 million "missing women" on figures that show there are only 94 women for every 100 men in South Asia while the ratio worldwide is 106 women for every 100 men.

High mortality levels for young women

South Asia is one of the few areas in the world where men outnumber women, the report said. China and parts of the Arab world show similar trends, it added.

"This unfavorable ratio is primarily a consequence of the high levels of mortality among young girls and women in their child-bearing years," the report found.

Another key factor is a pattern of favoring male babies over females in dishing out food, a pattern which continues into adulthood and leads to chronic nutritional woes for females, it said.

Of the seven nations covered by the report, there was evidence in all but the Maldives and Sri Lanka that males eat better than females, starting at birth, the report said.

While there are laws on the books against infanticide in the region, these are not enforced, Haq contended.

"In a very traditional society the legal system is really standing in the way," she said, citing evidence of about 10,000 cases of infanticide in Bombay alone in 1997.

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