Sex-selective abortion: the lesser of two social evils in Nepal?

In October 1991 Amartya Sen wrote a controversial article in The New York Review of Books, “More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing”. In the piece, he tried to estimate the large numbers of “missing women” in countries like India, China as well as other Asian & African countries by comparing with the numbers that could have been expected if men and women had received similar care in health, medicine, and nutrition. He arrived at a figure of more than 100 million missing women. This horrible number conveys a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women. Decades of deprivation have led to the systematic extinction of the female population in many parts of the world. I am deliberately using the world “extinction” because the figure of missing women as described by Professor Sen in the developing world is simply too huge to ignore. It exceeds the total number of casualties in both World Wars plus all casualties of all major epidemics of the twentieth century, including those who perished in the current AIDS pandemic. Sadly, it seems women are an endangered species in some parts of the world.

Two decades later, the situation is still not much different in Nepal, the country where I was born. Although the sex ratio still favors excess female population in the country, it by no means indicates atrocities committed against women are less here than anywhere else in the world. Nepal is still a notorious place for women to live, where modern day slavery exists in the form of girls’ trafficking and domestic servitudes. The extent of gender based violence can be imagined by the simple fact that in 2011 alone 61 cases of witchcraft were reported by the national NGO INSEC, the majority of which were women who were  branded with a hot iron and fed with excreta. Yet, an additional and increasing threat for the ‘endangered sex’ in my country nowadays is antenatal gender identification and sex-selective abortion. Professor Sen was right when he emphasized that the gender bias reflects itself in higher mortality due to unequal access to resources and services. But here in Nepal, the horror can start well before a girl is even born, in her mother’s womb. To put it bluntly: in one of the poorest countries of the world where daughters are still widely perceived to be of less economic value and the local tradition continues to demand that women’s families give dowry at the time of marriage, what better way of conserving scarce resources than to get rid of these baby girls as early as possible?  There is no exact figure on how many sex-selective abortions are conducted every year in the country; however, limited available evidence shows that health workers admit it’s a problem. Worryingly, they even reckon the problem is increasing. True, health workers are well aware of the pressures many Nepali women face to bear sons and many of these health workers might be worried that these women may seek unsafe services elsewhere when unable to obtain abortions in a hospital.  But there’s an incentive in the practice for many of them as well: it is not exactly a secret that the mushrooming numbers of sonography clinics in the major cities in Nepal are involved in antenatal sex determination – in fact, it’s a major source of income for them.

Perhaps more surprising is the indifference and apathy on the part of civil society which till now has opted to stay mute on the issue, by and large. This could indicate a decreasing moral threshold of the Nepalese society: many people probably consider sex-selective abortion to be the lesser of two evils if the other option is to give birth to a female infant who has to live a life of relative deprivation and faces a substantial risk to become the victim of gender-based violence for much of her life.

During a recent event on 14 February 2013, more than two decades after Sen’s seminal article, many physically assaulted Nepalese women were finally able to overcome their trauma and dance in front of dozens of television cameras in solidarity with one billion women worldwide to end gender based violence. But the question that remains unanswered is, how many more decades do we have to wait  for someone to come to the front and shake his or her head to say no to female feticide in Nepal?

Country of slaves

Immigration has a long history in Nepal. Many people living in the Nepali hills migrate due to a lack of agricultural land and poor infrastructure for industry. In other words, migration to improve one’s livelihood is an obligation rather than a choice for many Nepalese. The 21^st century is not much different from previous centuries in that respect.

Before India was colonized by the British, major cities in India were a popular destination for Nepalese migrant workers. They were recruited for the work local populations were unwilling to do,  like washing dishes, cleaning, cooking,  … You name it.

In the history of Nepalese migrant workers, the 1815 Anglo-Nepalese war was  a turning point. In that war a well-equipped British army was defeated by the (comparatively small but ferocious) army of the Gurkha kingdom. Impressed by the bravery of Gurkha soldiers, the British started to recruit Nepalese soldiers establishing a separate “Brigade of Gurkhas”  in their army, first – under a clause of the peace and friendship treaty with the Nepali king- in the East India Company’s arm. This was the start of a long military alliance between the British and the Gurkhas which lasts till today. Since then the British army has set up (annual) recruitment camps in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal, recruiting thousands of young Nepalese for the army. In every war the British fought over the past two centuries, the “Brigade of Gurkhas” has played a significant role. Sadly, often these poor Nepalese are intentionally portrayed as  ruthless mercenaries and even cannibals  (see here or  here for some recent examples of biased media coverage of the Gurkhas). Less known perhaps is that many former Gurkhas are fighting against the British government, asking politicians to do something about the discrimination they face(d) while in service and after their retirement. Till this day, this struggle continues for many of them, even if the British government has taken a few measures recently.

Unlike Gurkha “migration”, mass migration towards the Persian Gulf countries started only two decades ago. Political instability in Nepal due to the Maoist insurgency, combined with the need for cheap labour in the booming economies of many Gulf countries led to a massive outflow of migrant workers. Nepalese workers are mostly unskilled or semi-skilled and typically recruited for construction work. When Qatar was selected to host the 2022 World Cup football, the demand for Nepalese workers increased even more, as they are considered obedient, hardworking and honest workers. And cheap, of course. Unfortunately, these workers have to work under the notorious Kafala system.  The kafala system (‘sponsorship system’) is a system used to monitor construction laborers in Persian Gulf states. The system requires all unskilled laborers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status. The harsh system allows the confiscation of passports and (illegal) charging of exorbitant agent fees. Qatar has an exit visa system so these migrant workers cannot leave the country without their sponsor’s permission. Many of them thus find themselves trapped in a Gulf country with unpaid wages, working under inhumane working conditions.

To give you an idea, 44 Nepalese workers died between 4 June and 8 August last year, in about two months in other words. Without major improvements, the International Trade Union Federation (ITUC)  estimates that 4,000 workers are likely to die before the first ball is kicked in 2022. Back in Nepal more coffins will be arriving with a “Natural Death “ tag on them, more poor families will be mourning beloved ones and more Nepali hearts will break. When the tournament finally kicks off in 2022, these victims of the so called ‘beautiful game’ will be forgotten. “Collateral damage”, so to speak. FIFA officials along with the Qatari Emir will then be sitting on plush seats in air-conditioned stadiums, made on a pile of dead bodies of these unfortunate labourers. Together with thousands of other “fans”, they’ll be cheering on  “million dollar” boys & men, chasing a ball. Everyone is talking about the likely impact of Qatar’s extreme heat on a few hundred (let’s not forget, ridiculously overpaid) football players, some even want the tournament to take place in a less hot season. Poor Rooney, Ronaldo and Kompany. Football pundits are already wondering how English fans will support their team without bottles of beer, if alcohol is not allowed around the stadiums…

Both groups of Nepali migrants, the  “Gurkhas’ and “FIFA workers” were compelled to work and often die  in  foreign lands,  serving their masters  in the hope that they would be able to send at least some of the money they earn(ed) to their impoverished beloved ones back home. Time and again both groups have been and are being discriminated against, abused and humiliated (and we didn’t even mention the numerous poor Nepali girls and women illegally trafficked across the border with India, to work in brothels in places like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, a sad story which requires an editorial in itself).

Recently, a reputed British newspaper came up with a series of articles exploring the plight of “FIFA Construction workers”. Ironically, far less is being said in British media about their fellow service men, “The Gurkhas”.

So misfortune continues and slavery never ends for  poor  Nepalese. They are raped and tortured in the brothels of Kolkata, enslaved in the stadiums of Doha and humiliated in the barracks of London.