INTRODUCTION:

‘Where women are honored there Gods are pleased; but where they are not honored no sacred rite yields rewards.’

Laws of Manu

Female foeticide is a process of aborting perfectly healthy female foetuses after about 12 weeks (or more) of gestation just because they are females. The same foetuses would've been allowed to live if they were males ^2.

Why is female foeticide a problem?

· Increase in violence against women- violation of their human rights.

· Abortion due to family pressures to have male child effect on mental and physical health of woman.

· More men in society due to sex selective abortions.

· Factors That Favour

· Economic depression

· Denial of Right to property

· False sense of impurity

· Deprivation of Education.

· Evil of Dowry

· Social Security

NEED FOR THE STUDY:

The world population has a sex ratio of 990 females per 1000 males

Sex ratio:

· Japan 1041

· USA 1029

· Indonesia 1004

· Bangladesh 953

· China 944

· India 933

India has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world⁵

In India, the selective abortion of female foetuses has led to an alarming “gender gap” in the country’s population. It is a tragedy that every year, half a million girls children are killed and prevented from being born ^3.

Nearly 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in the country over the past two decades. The United nation has reported that in India female ratio between 0-6 years age group has fallen to 896 females per 1000 males, the lowest ever in a decade for the world’s second most populous nation.

The increasing foeticide is evident from the 2001 census; the overall birth rate for India was 927 girls per 1,000 boys, a steady decline from 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991 and 962 in 1981.6

According to the UNFPA 2003 statistics, there were 770 girls counted for every 1000 boys in the district of Haryana (one of India richest states), 814 girls in Ahmadabad (Gujarat), and 845 in South West Delhi. Over 10 million female foetuses (1 in every 25) have been aborted in India since 1994 and prenatal sex-selection in India causes the loss of 500,000 girls per year⁴.

According to Karnataka state level survey on sex ratio and incidence of female foeticide showed that female foeticide was rampant in few district of Karnataka. In 2002 -2003 only 23,619 births of female babies were recorded as against the birth of 24, 226 male babies in rural areas of Karnataka.

Now it is the time to energies efforts to put gender equality at the top international peace and development agenda¹.So the main purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge, among adolescent about the consequence of female foeticide and also to improve the maternal health by avoiding frequent induced abortions⁴. Since the youth constitute an important segment of the society, the researcher felt that it is necessary to assess the knowledge of youths on female foeticide. Apart from being future parents they have immense potential to initiate discussion on the issue at home and in the community.

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of the study are:

1. To assess the level of knowledge regarding female foeticide among the adolescents in Mysore.

2. To find the association between level of knowledge regarding female foeticide among the adolescents with their selected demographic variables.

Hypothesis:

There will be a significant association between the level of knowledge of adolescents regarding female foeticide with selected demographic variables among the adolescents

METHODOLOGY:

Research Design

The design adopted is exploratory descriptive survey.

Settings

The present study was conducted in selected urban areas at Mysore district.

Sample and Sampling Technique

By convenient sampling technique 30 urban adolescent were selected

Instruments Used

Section 1; Data on demographic variables

It consisted of the following items such as age, sex, religion, number of siblings, educational status of father and mother, occupation of the father, income of the family and source of information regarding female foeticide

Section 2: Structured Interview Schedule regarding female foeticide.

This section consists of 24 questions regarding female foeticide, The items were developed as to cover the following groups.

1. General concept about female foeticide

2. Prevention and consequence of female foeticide

RESULTS:

Section 1: Description of selected Personal variables of study subjects:

TABLE 1. Frequency and percentage distribution of adolescents according to their personal variables n=30

Sl no

Sample characteristics

Frequency(f)

Percentage

(%)

Age

a) 12- 14yrs

b) 15-18 yrs

20%

80%

Gender

a) Male

b) Female

16.66%

83.33%

Religion

a) Hindu

b) Christian

c) Muslim

76.66%

10%

13.33%

Number of siblings

a) 1

b) 2

c) 3

d) 4 and above

46.66%

33.33%

20%

3.33%

a) Gender of siblings

a) Male

b) Female

c) Both

33.33%

23.33%

43.33%

Education of father

a) No formal education

b) Primary

c) PUC

d) Graduate

e) Post graduate

30%

63.33%

3.33%

Education of mother

a) No formal education

b) Primary

c) PUC

d) Graduate

e) Post graduate

36.66%

60%

3.33%

Occupation of father

a) Unemployed

b) Daily wages

c) Professional

d) Others

3.33%

76.66%

3.33%

16.66%

Occupation of mother

a) Unemployed

b) Daily wages

c) Professional

d) Others

46.66%

53.33%

Income of the Family

a) <5000

b) 5001-10,000

c) 10,001 -15,000

d) >15,001

20%

63.33%

13.33%

Source of information

a) Health worker

b) Mass media

c) Through friends

d) Through parents

e) No previous knowledge

40%

60%

3.33%

30%

Section 2:

Description of level of knowledge of adolescents regarding female foeticide.

The total level of knowledge score ranged from 0-24. The level of knowledge scores further arbitrarily divided as poor knowledge (0-8), average knowledge (9-17) and good knowledge (18-24)

Table 2. Frequency and percentage distribution of adolescents according to their level of knowledge n=30

Level of knowledge	Frequency	Percentage
Poor	6	20%
Average	24	80%
Good	0	0

Table 3. Mean, Median, Range Standard deviation of level of knowledge scores of adolescents regarding female foeticide. n=30

	Mean	Median	Range	SD
Knowledge score	11.066	11	8-15	±2.247

Section 3:

Association between the levels of knowledge of adolescents regarding female foeticide with their selected demographic variables

To find out the association of level of knowledge regarding female foeticide among adolescents with their selected personal variables, Chi square was computed and it was evident that there is no significant association of level of knowledge of adolescents with their selected personal variables.

TABLE 4. Chi-square values between level of knowledge of regarding female foeticide and with their selected personal variables n=30

Sl no

Selected personnel variable

Poor Knowledge

Average knowledge

Chi Square

Age

a)12- 14yrs

b)15-18 yrs

0.008^#

Gender

a)Male

c) b)Female

0.0155^#

Religion

a) Hindu

b) Others

0.666^#

Number of siblings

a) 1 and 2

b) 3 and above

0.2901

b) Gender of siblings

a) Female

b) Both

0.6389^#

Education of father

a) Primary

b) Others

0.2557^#

Education of mother

a) Primary

b) Others

0.8373^#

Occupation of father

a) Daily wages

b) Others

0.2901

Occupation of mother

a) Daily wages

b) Others

0.84^#

Income of the Family

a) Below 10,000

b) Above 10,001

0.3473^#

Source of information

a) Mass media

b) Others

0.9266^#

df=1, c² (1) = 3.84, # = Yates Correction

CONCLUSION:

The present study focused to assess the level of knowledge regarding female foeticide among the adolescents in selected urban areas in Mysore.

The study concluded that majority 80% of the adolescents had average level of knowledge regarding female foeticide. Data also revealed that 20% adolescents had poor level of knowledge regarding female foeticide. And there is no significant association with any variables.

Thus study concludes that the adolescents should get enough awareness regarding female foeticide. As health professionals it’s the responsibility of us to conduct some awareness programme to improve their level of knowledge also the government should strengthen the laws to stop this evil practices.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Similar study can be conducted on a large sample.

2. A comparative study can be performed between urban and rural area.

3. Similar study can be conducted to see the relation between knowledge and practice

REFERENCE:

1. Shubhneet Inderjit Kaur. A cry still Unheard: The menance of female foeticide in India.2011Apr07 available from http://www.jurisonline.in

2. Indu Grewal and J. Kishore. Female Foeticide in India. International Humanist News. IHN 2004.

3. Missing female births in India. The Lancet 2005; 367(9506):185-6.

4. Ramification of female foeticide. Shakti Vahini’s Publication. Available from http://wwwshaktivahini.org

5. http://www.slideshare.net/drsujnanendra/female-foeticide

Received on 21.07.2014 Modified on 24.09.2014

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research 3(1): Jan.-March, 2015; Page 01-04

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