Fatal promise of immortality

The Census of 2001 brings the heartening news that the secular decline in the sex ratio of file population has come to a halt: The sex ratio in the population has increased from 927 females per thousand males to 933 females per thousand males in 2001. However it also brings disturbing figures of the continuing decline in the sex ratio in the 0-6 years age group. Partly due to higher female mortality in this age group, demographers had agreed that it is also due to female foeticide, the sex-selective abortion of female foetuses. The figure for the number of females per 1000 males has come down from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. Some states in the country, Himachal Pradesh, with a decline of 54, Punjab of 82, Haryana of 59, and Delhi and Gujarat of 50 each, have shown more precipitous declines. Indeed the sex ratio at birth, based on the SRS, points to an increasing masculinisation from 109.5 males per 100 females in 1990 to 111.0 males per 100 females in 1998. As a consequence there has been a great deal of official concern, the Indian Medical Association initiated a campaign to sensitise the public, the Supreme Court has instructed states to implement the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDA) Act, and so-called religious leaders have too entered the fray. The situation is complex: Prenatal sex diagnostic tests are increasingly available, prospective parents apparently want it. A section of the medical profession, which supplies these services, argues that they reflect the values of society and are merely meeting the demands of women. It is in this context that Amin Malouf's excellent novel 'The Century after Beatrice' should perhaps be made essential reading for medical students, indeed all medical professionals.