India's desire for sons drives child sex-change operations

Indian parents’ preference for sons has led to inhumane sex change operations on young girls, the Telegraph reported.

Doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, are accused of conducting sex change operations on 300 girls, receiving almost $3,200 for each operation.

The doctors insist that only girls with genital abnormalities or children with both male and female sexual characteristics were subject to operations. However, parents and doctors have allegedly misidentified children’s conditions to turn girls into boys.

According to Dr. V P Goswami, the president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics in Indore, genitoplasty can have a negative social and psychological impact on the child as implanted organs are incapable of producing hormones, leading to infertility and impotency.

India already faces a gender imbalance, with 7 million more boys than girls younger than 6, and women’s and children’s rights campaigners have targeted such practices as a sign of India’s growing “social madness.”

“The more educated and rich you are, the more there is killing of girls. People don’t want to share their property or invest in girls’ education or pay dowries. It is the greedy middle classes running after money,” said Ranjana Kumari, India’s leading campaigner against female feticide.

By Jung Eun-jung
(kristin2j@gmail.com)
Intern reporter
Edited by Rob York