Indian girls being denied heart treatment by parents who prefer to spend on boys
A survey of 400 children under 12 suffering from congenital heart disease found only 44 per cent of girls were treated for their condition compared with 70 per cent of boys.
Doctors and women's rights campaigners said the figures reflected the same discrimination against girls throughout India, where women often abort pregnancies if they suspect the foetus is female. The sex ratio of girls to boys has declined sharply in India from 933 per thousand in 2001 to 914 in 2011.
In a study for the British Medical Journal, doctors at New Delhi's All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, said they were alarmed at the gender anomalies in treatment they discovered.
"We found that significant gender bias exists in the acceptance of heart surgery among children. Of the 405 patients studied, 44 per cent (59/134) of girls had undergone surgery at 1 year compared with 70 per cent (189/271) of boys," said lead author, cardiologist Dr S Ramakrishnan.
Dr Amal Kumar Banerjee, cardiologist and former president of the Cardiologist Society of India, said Indian parents regard their sons as better investments for medical treatment.
"If the male child's abnormality is corrected in the early stage he will grow as a normal man and can earn for the family. But for girls, most parents think such corrective surgeries are not important, since they will be married off in their adulthood and become the responsibility of her husband," he said.
They fear any surgery will leave scars which will cause 'matrimonial problems' later. "Parents would not mind, if the girl dies due to such disease," he added.
"The bias is at every stage. First the parents kill her even before the girl is born. If she is allowed to live the girl gets less attention when it comes to primary health care, food, schooling, love and is always seen as a burden," said women's rights activist Flavia Agnes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...nt-by-parents-who-prefer-to-spend-on-boys.htm
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