Missing Mitu

It is with deep sadness that I inform you that our dear friend and spirited heroine is no longer of this world. Mitu Kurana was a force to reckon with and refused to back down despite the hardships, the deception, and the toll it took on her health. She died in March after heart surgery. I truly feel that Mitu died of a broken heart.

She was known around the world for her tireless struggle in her protection of the Daughters of India. She never once gave up hope that justice would be won. She continued to struggle against all odds.

I met Mitu on a blog article that I had posted several years ago. We stayed in touch until I went to India and met with her and her twin daughters in New Delhi. She told me her story which was recorded and is available for viewing on YouTube. I created this blog as a bookmark for the dozens of articles and videos on Mitu.

I had always hoped that I would return to India one day and spend time with Mitu; she graciously offered her home to me several times.

The best way to honor Mitu to is to continue to support her work by researching, speaking out, and being the light that she was for India, for the world, and for India’s daughters.

“Mitu’s Death is the death of Justice in India” ~ Mitu’s close friend and advocate, Indu Prakash Singh

I miss and commend you a hundred times over, my friend ~ With Love, Barbara Raisbeck

Dr. Mitu Khurana

Are You Having a Boy or an Abortion?

Muhtasim Sarowat Rayed

 

 

You have probably heard this line a couple of times throughout your life. It can seem like a piece of harmless humor, but it’s poking fun at a very real issue through biting satire.

You may even know that this line comes from the Dictator (2012), where Sacha Baron Cohen plays an autocratic ruler of a fictional middle eastern nation.

With this crass one liner, Sacha Baron Cohen shed some spotlight on an issue that, although important, few are aware of.

Sex selective abortions, where the primary motive of abortion is the gender of the fetus, is not only real, but shockingly common.

In 2010, around 124 million women were ‘missing’: they had been aborted by parents who didn’t want a female child. According to an UNFPA article, this number is predicted to climb to 142 million women by 2020.

Sex selective feticide is not a new phenomenon. In certain countries, like India and China, the sex ratio of men to women have often been unnaturally high, often reaching a ratio of 130 boys per 100 girls, whereas 106 boys to 100 girls is the norm. This reflects a clear preference for sons over daughters.

The availability of technological tools such ultrasounds have played into this macabre preference. When parents become aware of the gender of a foetus during an ultrasound procedure or similar methods of prenatal screening, those who prefer sons may then opt for a sex selective abortion.

“My husband didn’t want another girl. When I was five months pregnant I was forced to abort. (In his eyes) girls would depart and the money would leave with them,” said Pooja Salut, Ahmedabad, married to a multimillionaire industralist.

As illustrated by Ms. Salut’s case, sometimes sons are valued significantly more than daughters. In some places, only sons can inherit their parents’ wealth and assets, and they alone are expected to care for ageing parents and conduct the last rites for their parents.

Sons are considered flagbearers of the family name, while daughters are seen as burdens, especially if an expensive dowry is requested by the groom’s side while discussing marriage.

In India, daughters are categorically labeled as second class children, clearly inferior in terms of value to a son. Daughters, once married, often reside with their in laws, and are thus unable to take care of their parents in old age. Daughters don’t continue the family name, and daughters cannot help their fathers in work, especially if said work is physically intensive in nature.

. . .

“If this can happen to me it can happen to (my daughters) when they grow up. And that is the reason I’m fighting it.”

That’s Mitu Khurana from Delhi, who had to battle her in laws when they tried to pressurize her into aborting her pregnancy, having illegally obtained knowledge of the gender of the twins she was carrying to term.

 

Full Story

India’s Missing Daughters

India’s Missing Daughters

 

An Extraordinary Story Of A Mom Of 2 Girls Who Smashes Sex Determination, Foeticide

An Extraordinary Story Of A Mom Of 2 Girls Who Smashes Sex Determination, Foeticide

We Indians worship women in many forms and believe that they are Shakti, the other
signifcant part of Shiva without whom he is incomplete. Yet the society’s reality
reveals a completely different picture. People still believe that only their son can carry
the family’s name forward and consider their daughters as a liability to be married off
and sent to another family.

As heartbreaking this fact is, the numbers are even more disturbing. In 2011 census,
the number of girl child per 1000 boy child has declined from 927 to 919. No matter
how much we boast the slogans of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, the sad reality is that
ever year, female foeticide takes more than half a million lives of girl child even before
they are born.

A girl till the age of fve is the most vulnerable even after her birth. Many would argue
that such mindset is the thing of past and is now seen only in backward or rural areas
where people are not educated. For those people, the story of Dr Mitu Khurana is an
eye-opener. She is the frst woman to file a complaint on sex determination and fght
against all the odds to save her daughters.

Forced sex determination and abortion

Hailing from a well-educated family of doctors Mitu Khurana herself is a pediatrician.
She married in 2004 to an orthopedic surgeon. From the beginning, Mitu was taunted
and pressurized by her in-laws for dowry. Later in 2005, when she got pregnant with
her 􀂡rst child, she was asked by her in-laws to go for a sex-determination test to find
out the gender of the fetus.

Mitu did not agree to it and later found out that she was carrying twins. After this, her
husband and in-laws insisted that she must have the test done and one of them must
be a male child. Mitu continued to deny for this test and as a result, she was confned
in her room by her husband and in-laws.

Full Story

India Orders Google, Yahoo, Microsoft to Block Sex-Selection Abortion Ads

 

With an order from the Indian Supreme Court threatening to shut down Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! unless they stop carrying ads for prenatal gender testing that have led to millions of abortions of female unborn babies and a chronic imbalance of genders, the three IT giants grudgingly agreed to block 22 related key words.

The agreement to comply led Steven Mosher of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute to say, “Now that these Internet giants ban ads for one kind of abortion, we should encourage them to ban ads for all forms of abortion.” He added, “Abortion is the greatest poverty, as St. Teresa of Calcutta so often reminded us.”

Google told Indian media: “Keeping in mind the sensitivities attached to this issue and to ensure that technology is used in right earnest to curb this retrograde practice, we have decided to disable certain terms from appearing as autocomplete predictions as well as display a warning message on relevant searches to inform users of the unlawful nature of this subject.”

Earlier, the companies reportedly argued before the court that banning the words would impede research and also prevent people from searching for news stories on the subject, but the Supreme Court found the companies in clear violation of the 1994 law banning prenatal gender testing.

Though sex-selective abortions were banned a decade earlier, both laws are so widely flouted that UNICEF has reported that according to data up to 2005 there were 7,000 female babies aborted daily in India. To describe the mounting practice of sex-selection abortion – made possible by the increasing availability of ultrasound in India and China – the term “gendercide” was invented.

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The Woman Who Had Fought For Defending Her Twin Girls And Had Showed New Hopes To All The Mothers of Girl Children

The world has progressed a lot, people have reached to the moon and in a few centuries, they may create a base over there. Yet, the gender equality according to some of the family has remained the same. The people are still hoping for a boy-child to continue their dynasty. Thus, the lives of the girl child are often taken even before they are born. The act of female feticide is still very common in many parts of the country. Although the Gender Testing prior to the birth is illegal these days, still the statistics are showing that female feticide is taking almost half a million lives of the girl child before they are even born in this country every year.

Dr. Mitu Khurana is an excellent example that the gender discrimination is not only restricted to the rural parts of the country. The gender discrimination is also present in the urban area, among the privileged class of the society. Dr. Khurana is married to a respected doctor. Yet, her husband and his family had tried to kill her twin daughters before they are born.  Dr. Khurana, with the help of her own family, had fought for the right of her own daughters. Her act of courage has inspired thousands of mothers to take a stand for their unborn girl children.

The Early Life of Dr. Mitu Khurana

Dr. Mitu Khurana was born in a doctor family. She and her sister were the much wanted and much loved daughters of their parents. Their parents wanted their children to be the girls and thus they were bought with much love and care. Thus, her life was smooth and sheltered prior to her marriage. Eventually, Dr. Khurana had gotten married to an orthopedic surgeon. From the very first, she felt unwelcomed by her husband and his family in her new home. She had to face taunts for not bringing enough dowries from her parent’s house. Over the time, the situation didn’t change, it had gotten worsened.

Her Fight for her unborn girl children

As soon as she became pregnant her husband and in-laws had initiated to know the gender of the fetus. A soon as his husband’s family came to know about the twin girls, they wanted her to get rid of them. Even after tolerating the abuse, Dr. Khurana had tried to make the situation right. She had wanted her parents-in-law and husband to accept the girls and to give them the love that the babies deserved. One day her husband had pushed her from the stairs and locked her in the room afterward so that she might lose her precious daughters. After that, she had called her own father, who had demanded to bring her home.

Full Story

Meet Women’s Manifesto Award 2016 winner

Women’s Manifesto Award 2016 is conferred on Dr. Meetu Khurana by Women’s Manifesto an initiative by a group of women from diverse background with its headquarter in Okhla.

It was declared in the occasion of Women’s Leadership Summit conducted at the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi on 8 April, 2017 and

The award was given by Prof. Roop Rekha Verma, former Vice- Chancellor of Lucknow University. Dr. Mitu Khurana is well known for her audacious and constructive fight for the proper implementation of laws meant to protect and safeguard women.

“This gutsy mother of twin daughters was the first woman in India to file a case under the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act – the great legal tool which is supposed to protect the lives of our unborn daughters.”

Dr Khurana’s case is a well documented one and has been covered quite extensively by the Indian and foreign press.

She is a doctor, married into a family of doctors, and more importantly – a strong and determined woman who never gave up, said the release, adding that hence she started her own blog where she started collecting all judgements.

Full Story

India heading for a shortage of women

 India heading for a shortage of women

In India an age-old custom favouring boys is leading to a shortage of women.

JAMES BENNETT, REPORTER: When you run a farm in India, having five sons is an asset, but when only one is married, it is also a burden.

RAJBALA HOODA (translated): Three of my sons can still get married, but the eldest one, it is going to be impossible to find a wife for him.

VIKRAM HOODA (translated) I never thought it would be this difficult for us to get married.

JAMES BENNETT: For every 10 boys, fewer than eight girls are born.

Family life here in this agricultural part of India remains deeply patriarchal. Parents here want a male heir to carry on the family farm but also so that he can bring in a wife and she can look after the parents in old age.

The problem is that every family’s quest for a male heir is led to a critical shortage of daughters and to women marry.

The Hooda family’s only married son, Balkrishna, found his wife more through cunning than romance.

BALKRISHNA HOODA (translated): My cousin told me that one his relatives was looking for someone to marry their daughter and were in talks with other families.

I reached her place that very night and got married.

JAMES BENNETT: Balkrishna’s brothers are finding out this society’s focus on boys and the disturbing abortion rates of female babies impose a life-long legacy.

BROTHER OF BALKRISHNA HOODA (translated): Abortions are the biggest reason why there is a lack of girls here.

INDIAN WOMAN (translated): Everyone is afraid of having girls because of dowry.

JAMES BENNETT: The tradition of dowries is rooted in the belief that a woman is a burden on her husband and he deserves to be compensated with money or gifts.

It makes having a baby girl an expensive prospect.

The advent of ultrasound technology offered a way out. Abortion rates sky rocketed. Dowries and gender testing are both forbidden in India, but the bans are largely ineffective.

Nearly three quarters of a million female foetuses are aborted in India each year.

MANEKA GANDHI, WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT MINISTER: I don’t think it actually is specific to India. I think it is an Asian thing that the boy will probably work and support you in your old age.

The boy will be more useful to the family and the girl belongs to someone else as soon as she gets married, she will go somewhere else.

That, I think, is the basis of this ridiculous belief.

JAMES BENNETT: On the outskirts of the Indian capital, I have come to meet Sumitra Devi.

Mother of two daughters, the eldest is enrolled at Harvard and the youngest, Shalini, is studying to become a pharmacist.

SUMITRA DEVI (translated): I am very proud of our daughters. We have worked really hard to make them successful and so have they.

All of us, including my daughters have made a lot of sacrifices to reach this stage of our lives.

JAMES BENNETT: Shalini Khatri and her sister value their independence now, but accept the inevitably of an arranged marriage.

SHALINI KHATRI: And it they will ask about the dowry and all then we will deny that. We are well educated.

Full Transcript & Video

Inconvenient Truths

 Inconvenient Truths

“Invest Rs.500 now and save Rs.50, 000 later” are advertisements still seen in Indian cities for gender biased sex-selection and elimination.Writer, Patralekha Chatte

rjee catches up with Mitu Khurana who had made legal history by prosecuting her doctor husband for illegally making her go through a sex-determination test but her fight is far from over.

I have been writing about gender biased sex selection and sex selective elimination for years. I filed my first report on the subject in 1988. It was about a notorious doctor couple in Amritsar who openly ran an anti-natal sex determination clinic. “Invest Rs.500 now and save Rs.50, 000 later”, they advertised. The blatant message that elimination of a female foetus could save parents the expenditure on dowry earned them huge notoriety, also customers. The doctors viewed their work as ‘social service.’

“We are saving the mothers and the unwanted daughters,” the wife told me without the slightest trace of remorse. I remember my visit to their clinic. It was a week-day evening. A row of young women were waiting patiently outside their chamber. Many were newly married. All looked tense, distraught. I remember one woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy. She was all too aware of the risks of an abortion in her state but the fear of what would happen to her if she gave birth to a baby girl came through as she whispered.

That distressing image has stayed with me.

Over the years, I have filed more reports — interviews with intrepid activists fighting to get culprits punished, with doctors who were willing to critique their own community and so on.

India has changed. But the deep-seated cultural preference for sons remains as strong as ever. Earlier it was seen as an obsession confined to some parts of the country – the north and the west. Today, the diabolic coming together of prejudice and misuse of technology has spread the problem across the country.

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India’s disappearing daughters: Child sex ratios continue to plummet all over the country

Exactly a month ago, Dr Mitu Khurana lost a 11-year-old court battle. This gutsy mother of twin daughters was the first woman in India to file a case under the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act — the great legal tool which is supposed to protect the lives of our unborn daughters. Her lengthy battle came to end in just five minutes when the Supreme Court dismissed it on a technicality.

Dr Khurana’s case is a well documented one and has been covered quite extensively by the Indian and foreign press. She is a doctor, married into a family of doctors, and more importantly — a strong and determined woman who never gave up. She had said that in 2005 when she was under heavy sedation, her in-laws had got an illegal sex determination test done in a high-end clinic in Jaipur. She had proof that this was an unregistered clinic and that the crucial Form F which records the woman’s consent to have an ultrasound had gone missing… all punishable offences under the PCPNDT Act.

And yet she lost.

Meanwhile in other parts of the country, sonographers or ultrasound specialists who do the very important task of scanning pregnant women to check fetal health, went on a one day strike in protest against what they called the draconian PCPNDT Act. They wanted the Act amended because they said they were being persecuted for trivial reasons like a clerical error.

“Look at the piles of paperwork to be done for every single scan,” said an exasperated sonologist at a conference on sex selective abortion. “If I slip on even a single one, I can get arrested and my ultrasound machine can be locked. I came into this field because I was interested in fetal health. Now I regret it. This was once the most popular specialisation for gynaecologists. Now the youngsters are afraid to get into this field.”

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