Her front yard was full of these plants. According to eyewitnesses, elderly punjabi males ("babay" was the word one witness used) would come in the early morning, or late at night to snip the bulbs of these "khus khus" plants. At first it was just a couple of individuals, but the situation got out of control as their front yard became a hotspot for seniors.
My Chacha tried to halt access to the "doday" collectors by using a block of wood and rope to make the front gate virtually impossible to penetrate. This wasn't enough to stop the intruders... they just came around the back!
One morning my Chacha and Chachi awoke to see that all the "doday" had been stolen.
There was no way to stop these determined flower lovers, and my Chacha and Chachi got fed up trying, so they did the unthinkable... they ripped out all the "khus khus" plants.
You can't really appreciate the loss without seeing a before picture of their front yard; unfortunately I don't have one, but trust me... their front yard was FULL of flowers.
Up to 100 female foetuses found
New Delhi - Health authorities have recovered scores of aborted female foetuses from a well in northern India, media reported on Thursday.
The site was discovered by police in the city of Patiala in Punjab state, which has one of the worst gender ratios in the country, newspapers reported.
The well was on a vacant plot next to a clinic run by a husband and wife, who had been illegally been involved in abortions for years.
Abortions
While abortions are not illegal in India, only a limited number of medical institutions are authorised to perform them.
The couple charged anywhere from 8 000 rupees to 15 000 rupees (R1 162 to R2 182) per abortion, the reports said.
Because the foetuses were so decomposed, investigators were unable to say exactly how many were recovered from the well but estimates ranged from 35 to 100.
Ultrasound centre raided
The investigators also raided an ultrasound scanning centre that was allegedly carrying out pre-natal sex determination tests and then directing pregnant women carrying girls to the clinic for abortion.
Indian doctors are banned by law from carrying out sex-determination tests if female foetuses will be aborted as a result.
But many couples still have such tests and then pay shady operators for abortions if the baby is female.
Girls a liability
Girls are considered a liability as parents have to put away large sums of money to be paid as dowry at the time of their marriages.
Centuries of tradition also demand that couples produce at least one male child to carry on the family name.
With only 798 girls for every thousand boys under the age of six, Punjab has the lowest gender ratio in India, where the average figure is 927 - still well below the worldwide average of 1 050 female babies.
A study by British medical journal the Lancet said this year that India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts say the figure is not more than five million.
Boy, they are doing it to male foetus as well
Gur Kirpal Singh Ashk
PATIALA: Woe in the womb is getting bigger by the day as gullible people are being taken for a ride. Those after money do not hesitate from aborting male foetuses also.
Victims in this darker tale are those who want a baby boy. Quacks and midwives in rural areas contact women interested in determining sex of the unborn child.
They offer help and take the women to an ultrasound centre at night, and a package deal is struck: Rs 3,500 for sex determination, and if it is a female child, then Rs 20,000 including charges for abortion.
The trouble starts when these quacks and midwives pass off the male foetus as a female one. Dr O P S Kande, former president of Punjab Chapter of IMA and member of the state advisory committee (PNDT), explains the trick.
"Since the lay man cannot make out what he is being shown on the screen of ultrasound machine, he is easily deceived. As the fee for sex determination is nothing compared to the amount fixed for abortion, they abort the male child also," he says.
http://mistakesingh.blogspot.com/2006/08/worse-than-we-thought_16.html#links
