Hindustan Times (Patiala)

Punjabis carrying out female foeticide in Canada too?

- IndoAsian News Internatio­nal letterschd@hindustant­imes.com

: Indians are known for their preference for male child, and according to a new study, some Indian-origin couples living in Canada — mostly those from Punjab and the Hindi heartland — may be practising sex selective abortion out of a preference for boys.

The research published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecolog­y, Canada, found that longer the women lived in Canada, the greater was the gender imbalance in live births.

The practice of sex selective abortion appeared to be more common among those who already had two daughters. Canada has no legal restrictio­ns on sex-determinat­ion tests and sex-selective abortion unless use of reproducti­ve technology is involved.

The study was done by the same group of researcher­s who reported last year that more male babies than expected were being born to Indian-born women in Canada. In 2016, the researcher­s found that women born in India

who have two daughters gave birth to 196 baby boys in Ontario for every 100 girls while in most of the world, 103-107 boys are born for every 100 girls. Canadianbo­rn women in Canada give birth to 105 boys for every 100 girls.

The new study revealed that the skewed ratio does not improve with the length of time the women live in Canada. Findings suggest the gender imbalance will not be corrected without interventi­ons that include community involvemen­t and education, said lead researcher Marcelo Urquia from St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Urquia and team looked at records of 46,834 births to Indianborn women who immigrated to

Ontario province between 1985 and 2012 and gave birth in Canada between 1993 and 2014.

Among Indian-born women with two previous daughters, elevated male-to-female ratios were particular­ly evident among women whose mother tongue was Punjabi. At their third delivery in Ontario, these women had 240 boys for every 100 girls.

Also, women whose mother tongue was Punjabi gave birth to 213 boys for every 100 girls if they had lived in Canada for less than 10 years. The number went up to 270 boys for every 100 girls if they had lived in Canada for more than 10 years — the opposite of what researcher­s would have expected, Urquia said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India