|
The Indian town where female foetuses 'are being fed to dogs to hide rampant gender genocide'
Sickening practice exposed in Bede, Maharashtra – Indian state with worst child sex ratio of 801 girls for every 1,000 boys being born
Feeding foetuses to dogs means bodies to not have to be disposed of by official means and hides the true scale of illegal sex-selective abortion
By KRISHNA KUMAR
PUBLISHED: 20:18 GMT, 22 May 2012 | UPDATED: 09:51 GMT, 23 May 2012
Indian abortion Doctors are feeding female foetuses to dogs to cover up rampant infanticide by parents who prefer boys, it has been revealed.
The sickening practice was exposed in the town of Beed, in Maharashtra – the state with the worst child sex ratio in the country.
So-called gender genocide was blamed for last year's appalling census figures, which showed that just 801 girls were being born for every 1,000 boys.
Beauty with a dark secret: A stunning temple in the town of Bede , where doctors keep dogs to avoid disposing of foetuses they have aborted because the child is a girl – a practice that has long been illegal
By keeping dogs, doctors can get rid of bodies without having to dispose of them through official channels.
It means that the true extent of illegal sex-selection abortion in the town – and elsewhere in India – is being hidden
The shocking revelation was made by Varsha Deshpande of Lek Ladki Abhiyan, a charity working against the practice.
She claimed her organisation had conducted a sting operation Dr Sudam Munde in 2010, in which he openly talked about how he was aborting female foetuses and feeding them to his five dogs.
Killer decision: Although sex-selective abortion and ultrasound scans (like above) that are soley carried out to determine a baby's gender are illegal in India, the practice continues in some clinics
It was then that the police had arrested him, but he was released soon and continued with his activities.
'A person even saw a foetus being fed to the animals,' Deshpande said.
Admission: Health minister Suresh Shetty revealed he's heard of Bede doctors feeding foetuses to dogs
Suresh Shetty, the public health minister for Maharashtra – India – second most populous state – also admitted he had heard of foetuses thrown to the dogs in Beed.
Deshpande added: 'This is known to everyone in Beed, but the police are not taking action as Munde influential.'
Last Friday, Vijaymala Patekar, 28,, was admitted to Dr Munde's abortion clinic in Beed when she was six months pregnant.
She had four daughters and did not want another. But while her pregnancy was being terminated, she died.
The police have arrested Munde and his wife, but Deshpande said the couple were held earlier too for the same offence and will go scot-free again because of their money power and influence.
'We don't want this case to be tried in Beed or Marathwada. Let the case be tried somewhere outside as they wield too much influence for the trial to be fair,' she said.
Health minister Shetty said: 'I have heard of the practice but have no evidence.'
He added that since the local police seemed to be under a lot of 'pressure', he had decided to ask the crime branch to investigate the latest case.
Substantiating Deshpande's account of the kind of clout enjoyed by Munde, Shetty said: 'Our civil surgeon who had gone to investigate Munde's hospital was locked up in a room by some goons.
Location: The town of Bede, in Maharashtra – the state with the worst sex ratio in India
'They even abused her and asked her to go away.'
The minister said the surgeon while trying to take action against such doctors had been facing threats for more than a year.
'We have asked the home department to provide security for our staff,' he said.
|
