Chapter - VIII

CONCLUSION

Pregnancy termination with sex selection depends upon social and cultural setting
prevailing in a society. The selected communities belonging to Haryana (Jind District) and
Tamil Nadu (Salem District) exhibit evidences of sex selective abortions. The information
related to sex selective abortion became a “hidden fact” with the enforcement of law on
abortion. In the present study, an attempt was made to document the evidences of sex
selective abortions. The objective of the study was firstly, mapping of abortion and
sonography facilities in the selected districts of Haryana and Tamil Nadu. Secondly to find
out the prevalence and incidence of sex selective abortions in the above two districts and
thirdly to study the causes and consequences of sex selective abortions and obstetric
morbidity.

The study was conducted in two phases. As a first step to identify the clusters of
high incident areas of induced abortion a secondary data analysis of child population (0-4
and 5-9) was done for 1981 and 1991 census by districts. The districts that exhibited very
high sex ratio in both the time periods were selected for the study. District maps were
subsequently prepared using child sex ratio of (0-6 years) at the village level. There were
many villages with sex ratio of 125 and above. One of the concentrations of such cluster
was selected in both the districts. Mapping of abortion and ultrasound facilities in the 20 km
diameter of this cluster was carried out. From the villages having sex ratio of 125 and above
five villages in Jind district and seven villages in selam district was selected for the study.
Five to seven villages in one cluster were found to be sufficient for a study of this kind.
Ideally the intention was to do complete census of all the villages but because of budgetary
constraints only a few villages was selected for the study. A total of 2590 households in jind
and 1791 households in selam were covered. A total number of 2646 ever married women
in jind and 1706 ever-married women in selam were interviewed. In the second phase of the
study followed by a gap of 6 months a subset of the women were interviewed for detailed
information. This was followed by doctors visit to the villages, medical camps were
organized and clinical examination was carried out by gynaecologists with the consent of
the women.

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 The analysis of abortion data of two selected states reveals that:

1. The abortion rate has increased from 1971 to 2001 in both the states.
2. Among the study women one-third in Tamil Nadu and one-fifth in Haryana
have under gone abortion in their reproductive life.
3. In the study area of Tamil Nadu, induced abortions have lower mean duration
of gestation (12 weeks of gestation) compared to spontaneous abortions, and
in Haryana it was observed to be more than 12 weeks.
4. In case of Tamil Nadu women may be going for abortion as a method of
family planning whereas in Haryana women are more likely going for sex
selective abortions.

Indirect evidences drawn from pregnancy history, antenatal care, abortion history
reveals that out of the estimated induced abortions, 60 to 80 percent are sex selective
abortions or in other words out of total abortions, 40 to 75 percent could be attributed to
sex-selective abortions.

From the above analysis it can be concluded that out of the total estimated induced
abortions 60 to 80 percent are due to sex selective abortion in the study area.

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