INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S WORK

CARMEN LACARRA MARTÍN

AINHOA RUBIO MARCILLA

BEATRIZ SANTIAGO DÍEZ

BBC WORLD SERVICEPRESENTS…

ABORTION OF FEMALE FETUSES IN INDIA

18 NOVEMBER 1999

INTRO: The abortion of female fetuses in India in 1999 is leading to a drastic reduction in female population

The problem with trying to prevent couples aborting1 female fetuses2 in India is that cultural traditions die hard3, and a particularly powerful one is that boys are infinitely more4 desirable than girls. The reason is simple: when parents marry off a daughter, society expects them to give a huge dowry5 to the boy’s family. This represents an enormous burden6 that often wipes out7 a family’s entire savings. But Dr. Vinay Aggarwal, coordinator of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), believes that a fundamental change in attitude is possible. The IMA’s rally8 in Delhi will kick off9 a nationwide campaign to educate people about what Dr. Aggarwal describes as a degrading10 and inhuman practice. Estimates of the number of female foetuses being destroyed every year in India vary from two million to five million. According to the IMA, the consequences for Indian society are devastating. He points to11 the figures of the last census12 eight years ago which show that, in some parts of India, the population had only 879 women for every thousand males.

Vocabulary:

1-aborting: deliberately getting rid off; deliberately ending a pregnancy.

2-fetuses: unborn human beings, referring especially to the period of development from 8 weeks until birth

3-die hard: something that changes or disappears very slowly

4-infinitely more: much more

5-dowry: the money or goods a woman's family give to the family of the man that she marries

6-burden: in this case, something that causes a lot of worry and financial problems

7-wipes out: to use up completely

8-rally: a large public meeting in support of something

9-kick off: start

10-degrading: making people less important than they really are

11-points to: draws attention to

12-census: an official survey of the population of a country

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Unfortunately, India is not the only country which the law of the abortion is legal. In many other places woman can abort. The Spain’s actual situation is that the government want to approve the abortion law. Unlike India, Spain holds demonstration against the abortion. The next demonstration will be in Madrid the 7th March at 12 o’clock in “Puerta de Alcalá”. The Spanish associations such as “Association Pro-Vida Alcalá de Henares” or “Association Navarre in Deafens of life” say that it is not the last one that they are going to organize, they will organize one in each March's months of the next years until they retire this law.

THE END