A good proposal, I feel, but some campaigners have voiced their fears that the proposals will leave women even more vulnerable and doubly victimised. Discuss.
Entire families could be jailed for up to seven years for pressuring women into aborting female foetuses, in a move designed to halt India’s widening gender imbalance. Girls are considered a financial burden in India, where families fear the cost of paying illegal but common dowries when daughters marry. Campaigners believe that up to eight million unborn girls have been aborted in India in the past decade. Under laws to prevent “sex selection” and female feticide, doctors involved in the practice face punishments ranging from a 1,000 Rupee (€14) fine to three years’ imprisonment.
India’s Ministry for Women and Child Development now wants to turn the focus on the family networks that put pressure on women to abort unborn girls. A senior official, who asked not to be named, said: "It is important to make families equally accountable. **“We are seeking amendments in the present law to make families equally liable for the offence. Nothing has been decided but it is likely there will be a jail sentence between six months to seven years.”
**Campaigners have already voiced concerns that the proposals would make women more vulnerable. Ranjana Kumari, of the Council for Social Research, said pregnant women already suffered intense harassment, and sometimes attacks, from husbands and in-laws to have ultrasound sex determination tests and abortions. Under the proposals for collective punishment, they could also be blamed for any prosecutions of family members.
Re: India - Collective punishment for families who force abortions on women
Bad idea. as much as i hate crimes against women, i dont agree with punishing one person for crime of others. It is never gonnna happen, it goes against basic rules of law.
Re: India - Collective punishment for families who force abortions on women
I hope the “collective punishment” here means that only those family member(s) who directly force a woman to have an abortion against her will will be punished. Strict enforcement coupled with stiff penalties should be deterrent enough. There is no need to yank the rest of the family members, who played no direct role in the forceful abortion, to the prison as well; the stigma and embarrassment that they will have to live through of seeing their near and dear ones punished by the law is sufficient punishment for them as well.
Re: India - Collective punishment for families who force abortions on women
I hope the “collective punishment” here means that only those family member(s) who directly force a woman to have an abortion against her will will be punished. Strict enforcement coupled with stiff penalties should be deterrent enough. There is no need to yank the rest of the family members, who played no direct role in the forceful abortion, to the prison as well; the stigma and embarrassment that they will have to live through of seeing their near and dear ones punished by the law is sufficient punishment for them as well.
Re: India - Collective punishment for families who force abortions on women
Bad idea. as much as i hate crimes against women, i dont agree with punishing one person for crime of others. It is never gonnna happen, it goes against basic rules of law.
While I do not agree with the law, considering the circumstances I feel it is a move in the right direction. I have seen well educated families humiliate the women who bear girl children. I think the stigma attached in making the family understand the ramifications of forcing a woman to undergo forceful abortion would deter would-be offenders.
Re: India - Collective punishment for families who force abortions on women
Imprisoning people is the deceptively easy way out. Educating people on this topic is the only lasting solution. Throwing people in prison rarely solves anything.