Recent protests by anti-corruption protester Anna Hazare have reignited the anti-corruption movement and initiated many debates regarding the impact of corruption on India’s population. However, a noticeable omission from these discussions has been the impact of corruption on women throughout India. Women are more susceptible to the negative impacts of corruption for several reasons.

Firstly, women have less access to resources than their male counterparts and are therefore less able to function and progress in a society that is underpinned by corruption at the family, community and institutional level. Women, who are unable to pay bribes, are often unable to access vital public services such as medical care and education. The lack of access to these services leads to women experiencing poorer health, less jobs opportunities and further marginalisation from society.

Secondly, women generally have less access to capital and less ability to develop strong and influential networks within their community. This means that women have less access to decision making power and have limited capacity to influence decisions that directly or indirectly impact their lives. Corruption persists at all levels of government throughout India and access to and influence over decision makers is often dependent on connections and collateral. Women’s lack of access to both these resources renders them less able to influence decisions meaning that issues impacting women are perceived to be less important, are allocated fewer resources and in many cases are largely ignored.

Finally, the patriarchal nature of Indian society means that women are more at risk of exploitation and less likely to receive institutional protection and support. A major form of corruption that directly impacts women and children is sexual exploitation, such as providing sexual services in place of bribes, forced prostitution and trafficking. The marginalisation of women from social and economic recourses and capital restricts their capacity to participate equally within society and forces them to engage in behaviours and interactions that are harmful and disempowering. Corruption within government bodies and law enforcement agencies has led to a culture of ignoring corrupt and exploitative behaviours. Women receive little support and protection from corruption and are largely unable to successfully prosecute perpetrators of corrupt practices.

In a country where 49 percent of women are poor, corruption can both increase women’s marginalisation and poverty and stifle women’s attempts to address gender inequality within their communities. It is a central factor in the perpetuation of gender inequality within India. And, the fact that the gender dimensions of corruption continue to be overlooked is both concerning and detrimental to women’s empowerment.

HEALTH CAMP IN SANGAM VIHAR, DELHI: We are looking for volunteers for CSR’s latest project ‘Shuruaat: A new Beginning’ in Delhi. Can you help?

Shuruaat is running a Health Camp at our Sangam Vihar Crisis Intervention Centre (CIC), Delhi on  8th & 9th November to provide vital medical treatment to women and children from the local community. One doctor, one nurse and one assistant from Fortis Hospital will be joining us for the two-day health camp and free medical check-ups, vitamins and de-worming tablets will be made available to all patients attending.

We’re looking for young, enthusiastic, caring volunteers who can spare one morning or afternoon on Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th November to assist with running the Health Camp. Volunteers will assist in registration of patients, patient care, distribution of medication, and to provide basic healthcare information to the women and children of Sangam Vihar.

Volunteers are requested to bring one packet of multivitamins (iron/calcium/vitamin-E) or pack of glucose powder. Volunteers can sign up for either a morning shift (10.30am-1pm) or afternoon shift (2-5pm) and refreshments will be provided for at Sangam Vihar CIC.

If you are interested in this unique opportunity to give something back to the local community, and would like more information, please email Anubhuti at anubhuti@csrindia.org or leave your number by calling 011 26899998 and we will call you back the same day.

By Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research. 

Every newborn girl child will now be adopted by the Government of India. This is the India Planning Commission’s vision, in a new bid to tackle the country’s declining sex ratio. The Commission’s proposal renders the government responsible for the protection of pregnant mothers and their unborn daughters in rural areas, through involvement of health workers and local NGOs, and cash incentives for mothers and midwives.

The Planning Commission suggests monitoring all pregnancies in India by detecting the sex of the child early on and then subsequently supporting parents expecting a girl. Health workers will assist the mother through every stage of her pregnancy and track the growth of the child until she reaches two years of age.

At present, sex determination tests are illegal in India.  When taken with the intention of preventing female births, such tests constitute a violation of the most fundamental human right, the right to life, and are a clear manifestation of violence against women.  Nonetheless, the void between the number of female and male children continues to expand, and India bears the shame of having the worst sex ratio in the world. 2011 Census data reveals the number of girl children (aged 0-6) has decreased from 927 to 914 girls per 1000 boys in the last decade. This is a good indication of the extent to which sex-selective abortions and other harmful practices are carried out in India, regardless of preventative legislation.

The Planning Commission is therefore highly critical of the ban on sex determination tests and proposes relaxing the law to make way for an alternative, more effective solution. However, their proposed alternative will only aggravate the problem. The idea of conducting sex determination tests in rural India is, for lack of a better word, ridiculous. This proposal is not only short-sighted because it overlooks the strong prevalence of pre-natal sex selection in urban areas, but also for failing to address the socio-economic and cultural context of the declining child sex ratio. In light of poverty, patriarchal social structures and traditions, or a combination of all three, parents-to-be continue to go to all lengths to avoid having a girl child. As a result, between 1980 and 2010, somewhere between four to twelve million Indian girls were aborted because of their sex. The question is therefore, when the parents themselves do not want to give birth to girls, how effective can the government really be in persuading them to change their mindsets? Determining the sex of every unborn child in India would make women very vulnerable to pressure and violence from family and community members, potentially leading to an increase in abortion and suicide rates.

Sadly, while the ban on sex determination tests was at one time a landmark achievement,  the Indian girl child is now being treated as a pawn in a game of statistics and unethical lobbying, not as a human being. Now is not the time to relax India’s law on the prohibition of sex determination tests.

The utter lack of comprehensive laws regarding surrogacy in India has been causing complications for more and more foreign couples that choose Indian surrogate mothers. India is fast becoming the most popular destination to arrange for a surrogate mother, or a woman who will carry and deliver a baby for another person, due to its low cost and lack of surrogacy laws. But India isn’t the only country with convoluted legislature regarding surrogacy. Numerous other nations have less than friendly laws or hardly any laws on surrogacy, which causes confusions here at home and abroad.

In the United States, legislature regarding surrogacy varies across states. Arizona and Washington, DC ban all forms of surrogacy, while California has open surrogacy laws and Washington and Delaware only allow some forms of surrogacy. In other nations such as Australia, Brazil and the United Kingdom altruistic surrogacy isn’t prohibited by law, but commercial surrogacy, where the surrogate mother is given monetary or some other form of compensation in addition to her medical expenses, is prohibited. Therefore, couples or individuals from countries that ban commercial surrogacy are bound to fall into a legal mess as soon as they land in India looking for a surrogate mother.

These nations also consider the surrogate mother as the legal guardian and require adoption of the child in order for it to be nationalized. In India, the 2008 Draft ART Regulation Bill requires birth certificates to include the names of the intended parents so that they become the legal guardians. The differences in the law cause problems for many couples returning to their nation of origin, although many heterosexual couples manage to return with their surrogate child by claiming surrogacy wasn’t involved. Gay couples, which are increasingly choosing surrogacy in India, often get stuck in long legal battles.

India isn’t the only country still debating laws around surrogacy; Japan and South Africa have been passing around legislature for year. Japan doesn’t prohibit surrogacy but strongly discourages it, believing that it causes physical and mental discomfort to the surrogate mother and confuses familial relationships. South Africa, although lacking specific legislature governing surrogacy, maintains strict guidelines. For example, only married couples can opt for surrogacy, and the surrogate mother must have at least one child of her own. The courts also require an examination of the commissioning parents to confirm that they have appropriate intentions and require a signed agreement between the surrogate mother and the commissioners in order to be able to nationalize the child.

India’s Parliament plans to pass a bill to strengthen surrogacy laws this year. Some provisions slated for addition include preventing same-sex couples from hiring a surrogate mother, not allowing surrogate mothers under the age of 21 and over 35, and prosecuting couples who disown the baby if it is born with defects. The intent of lawmakers is to prevent the exploitation of surrogate mothers of the 1.5 billion Euros per annum industry.

By Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research

Incorporating a sexual education course in Indian schools has been an issue of debate for years. Those against a comprehensive sex education curriculum argue that information on sexual activity will encourage adolescents to engage in sexual promiscuity, ruining the Indian moral values they have been taught. What critics seemingly overlook is that India’s rich culture includes nearly 2.5 million HIV/AIDS infected people, not to mention high rates of teen marriage and therefore, teenage pregnancy.

A comprehensive course on sex education would create awareness about sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, which would increase safer sex practices, a statement that has been supported by research. MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, an internationally recognised NGO based in New Delhi, conducted a four-year study that demonstrated the importance of proper sex education. Of the five hundred Haryana students who participated, merely five percent of rural girls and 10 percent of urban girls claimed to know about condoms. After the comprehensive classes, nearly 78 percent of the rural students and 33 percent of the urban stated that they would decline sex without a condom, a considerable increase.

However, when the National Education Ministry and National HIV/AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) introduced an education programme for 15 to 17 year adolescents that included a unit on contraception and STDs, the programme was swiftly banned by several states. Among the states that banned the programme were Maharashtra, Gujurat and Karnataka, which have the largest HIV/AIDS infected populations in India.

The term “sex education” is misleading, which is why everyone thinks the course is about teaching kids sexual activity. In reality, sexual education is actually about better understanding our bodies and ourselves. It’s purely scientific, and sex education should be taught to students as soon as they begin to undergo puberty. Not only do young people need to know the changes that are happening to their bodies, but also this information is especially critical for women who are married at a young age. In India, nearly half of all women between the 20 and 24 are married by the time they are 18. This common practice of teenage marriage increases the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS due to a lack of awareness.

Sex education should become compulsory in every school in India to avoid boys and girls engaging in sexual activity that leads to dangers like HIV, unwanted pregnancy and unhealthy lifestyles. Politicians and conservatives who claim that Indians do not engage in premarital sexual activity are simply behind the times. In a poll conducted by India Today, one in four women in India between the ages of 18 to 30 has had premarital sex, and one-third of the entire population infected with HIV/AIDS are in the 15-29 age group.

Certain NGOs and non-profits understand the reality that more and more Indian youth are engaging in sexual activity, and that more often than not, they have a lack of knowledge about the potential consequences. Organisations such as Delhi-based Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues (TARSHI) has been running a helpline for years regarding information on sex education and has responded to nearly 60,000 calls. Another organisation, The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), has been working with adolescents to teach them about bodily and sexual development through the use of sophisticated programs. While these initiatives are benefiting thousands of young people, the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and other factors regarding sexual activity suggest that a comprehensive sexual education programme should be implemented in all schools.

The 2011 National Indian Census revealed what many of us already knew: Pre-natal sex selection still exists, and may be getting worse. But even those girl children that are not aborted, one health-related phenomena continues to claim more lives in India than HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined: stillbirths.

Stillbirths disproportionately affect the poor worldwide, with 98 percent of stillbirths occurring in low- to middle-income countries. More than two-thirds of stillbirths occur in rural families with little or no access to decent maternal care. While there are many causes of stillbirth, including maternal infections and maternal health problems such as hypertension, many deaths could be prevented if women had access to adequate health care.

A recent 18-country study from the medical journal The Lancet revealed that stillbirth losses affect 2.6 million families worldwide. This means that every day around 7,200 babies are stillborn.  Around 1.2 million babies die each year during labour, with such deaths often being associated with lack of adequate obstetric care. Unfortunately in India, 40 percent of women do not have access to skilled care during childbirth.

Out of all estimated stillbirths worldwide, 23.2 per cent occur in India, which means an average of 1,680 every day. In addition, the rate of stillbirths here has remained relatively steady throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The true extent of the tragedy is hard to estimate: Most stillbirths go unreported and their causes unrecorded.

Continuing in our efforts to fight female foeticide, our Research department led an Expert Group Meeting in Kurushetra, Haryana as part of the Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project last week. We were honoured that our meeting was attended by both local community members and figures from the local medical community, including the Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, Kurukshetra Dr. Sushma Saini; PC/PNDT Officer Dr. K.K.Sharma; Family Welfare Officer Dr. Madhu Sharma; and the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr. Lajya Ram.

The main purpose of the meeting was to look into how ultrasound machines are actually registered, and how portable machines are being used and transported. We also discussed the follow-up of two long-pending legal cases, heard community members’ concerns about 3 new area clinics, and talked about the level of awareness amongst doctors to combat pre-natal sex selection.

Dr. Manasi Mishra, our Head of Research and the Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project coordinator, also highlighted some of the recent initiatives by the Haryana government in fighting female foeticide. They have introduced cash rewards of Rs. 5 lakhs, 3 lakhs and 1 lakh ($11,200, $6,700 and $2,235 USS) for best sex ratio state districts. Additionally, informers who can provide information relating to illegal practises will receive a Rs. 5,000 ($110 USD) reward. However, some argued that the prize money awarded from the government is much too meagre, and no one will ever risk his life for it.

Overall, the meeting provided a valuable opportunity for medical professionals to exchange ideas and discuss the problem of female foeticide: It’s heartening to be able to join forces with committed medical professionals who are as determined to end this practise as we are.

By Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research.

In the latest publicized surrogacy battle in India, Norwegian woman Karen Ann Volden has been fighting legal battles with Norway and India since 2009 to allow her to return to Norway with the twins she had delivered through a surrogate mother. Volden’s twins were born in January of 2010 but were denied citizenship or adoption rights in Oslo, and were refused the right to be made Indian nationals by Delhi.

Surrogate mothers are hired to bear a child that they hand over to their commissioner after its birth. India has become one of the most popular destinations for surrogacy due to the cheap price, and mainly because there are no laws or governing body that overseas the process. Commercializing a mother’s womb needs to be looked at carefully, because it isn’t just a financial transaction. Having a woman play the role of a surrogate mother involves social and economic aspects. We must enact laws that give protection and rights to all parties involved in surrogacy—and that includes the doctor performing the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) process and delivery, the commissioners and the surrogate mother.

Most couples and individuals opt for a surrogate mother in India because surrogacy is illegal in their own country of origin. In a study conducted by Centre for Social Research, the most prevalent surrogacy areas in India are in Anand, Surat and Jamnagar of Gujarat state, with surrogate mothers travelling from as far as Jharkhand state. The more alarming results showed that the majority of surrogate mothers are displeased with the way clinics treat them. The women are often coerced into repeated inseminations if the first one failed, not allowed to meet their families and paid only after relinquishing the baby to the clinic.

Sadly, in a society where married women are totally dependent on their husbands, a surrogate mother can face many levels of violence, including social ostracizing, which is why this topic has been kept under the table by surrogate mothers. At the same time, surrogate motherhood isn’t always a noble idea for parents who are unable to conceive children. The reasons behind their efforts should be investigated as well because it has many ramifications if not checked.