Maharashtra is losing its daughters to sons pre-selected at in vitro fertilisation (IVF) laboratories abroad and delivered in India.
Local docs help affluent couples in Maharashtra beat the law
MUMBAI: Maharashtra is losing its daughters to sons pre-selected at in vitro fertilisation (IVF) laboratories abroad and delivered in India.
Instead of going through the risky and often guilt-ridden experience of having to abort a girl child, a rising number of fertile urban Maharashtrian couples are flocking to IVF centres in Thailand, Malaysia and the US, to pre-select the gender of their child before they get pregnant.
Scores of ‘fertility’ clinics in the state are helping affluent clients find a suitable clinic abroad that will ensure they have a son. In India pre-selection of gender is punishable under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.
“Many couples approach us for gender selection but we do not entertain them. Many of these desperate parents then fly out of the country,” says Dr Hrishikesh Pai, a leading IVF specialist of the country who works at Lilavati hospital.
DNA was able to track down a couple who opted for gender pre-selection abroad with the help of a Mumbai-based IVF specialist who found them the clinic.
The couple, who agreed to share their story on the condition that their identity is protected, said, “The intense longing for a boy after having a girl child in the family made us explore options.” The procedure cost the couple close to Rs6 lakh including air travel, and was planned and coordinated by a Mumbai-based IVF specialist. “Since we had a local doctor in the loop we felt safe,” the husband told DNA. The couple claimed that their intention was not to kill a girl child but to give birth to a boy. “In my mind it was clear. If I want to be a mother again, it had to be a boy,” the wife said.
“On an average every year I get about 50 couples who want to pre-select the gender of the child,” said Dr Firuza R Parikh, director, Department of Assisted reproduction and genetics at Jaslok Hospital and research centre. “I try and explain to them that a girl child is as good as a boy. I show statistics to show that in all likelihood a girl will perform better than a boy. However none of these couples comes back to us,” she added.
Currently the sex ratio for Maharashtra is at an all time low: 922 women for every 1000 men. The sex ratio is higher in the rural areas compared to urban areas. The sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years, an important indicator for future trends, is even worse: 913 girls for every 1000 boys.
“Couples who select the gender of their child abroad are doing a tremendous disservice to the girl child. For personal gains, in the name of family balancing, they are changing the social fabric of our society. The social cost of such practices will be borne by the generations to come,” Dr Parikh said.
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