印度首次出現"女嬰潮"

More girls were born in Delhi than boys last year for the first time, according to official figures, after parents were given cash bonuses of £125 for each new daughter as part of a drive to stamp out female infanticide.

Government officials cited the statistics as evidence that India is finally winning its war against the killing of unborn and baby girls, a practice estimated to account for as many as 50 million Indian women having gone “missing”, according to Unicef.

However, experts said that the improvement in Delhi was too sudden to be credible, and was likely to be the result of more families registering daughters to claim the cash benefits, rather than a genuine rise in the numbers of girls being born.

In the Indian capital, 1,004 girls were born for every 1,000 boys in 2008, according to the Chief Registrar, Births and Deaths.

The figures showed a startling jump in the ratio of girls to boys in a region that has had one of the worst records for female infanticide in the subcontinent.

In the period from 2005 to 2007, only 871 girls had been born in Delhi per 1,000 boys, according to the Registrar General.

Nesim Tumkaya, of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) said he wished the latest figures were true, but that data that showed more females than males being born defied the rules of nature – which dictate the reverse. “The figures are impossible,” he said.

Demographers consider the “natural” ratio at birth to be about 960 females per 1,000 males. Across all of India from 2005 to 2007, there were only about 900.

The skewed sex ration is the product of millions of illegal abortions of female foetuses and of the widespread murder of baby girls, experts say. Abortions are most common among rich couples who can afford ultrasound scans to illegally check their unborn baby’s sex, according to research by the UNPF.

Girls are prejudiced against largely because of the dowry system and inheritance practices tilted in favour of men. Illegal ultrasound sex tests are often advertised with catchphrases such as “spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later”.

As part of its anti-infanticide drive, the Delhi Government deposits 5,000 rupees (£125) in the name of a girl at the time of her birth and as much as 25,000 more through the course of her childhood as long as she stays in school. The money can be used to pay for further education or for wedding expenses.

據官方統計數據，去年印度德里出生的女嬰數量首次超過男嬰，此前（政府規定）父母每生一個女孩可得到125美元的現金獎勵，作爲其反弒嬰行動的一部分。

政府官員引用這一數據證明，印度終於取得了反弒殺未出生和幼年女嬰鬥爭的勝利。據聯合國兒童基金會統計，弒嬰已導致印度約5000萬女性“失蹤”。

然而，專家說，德里的改變太突然以至於不夠可信，而且這一結果可能是由於更多家庭爲得到現金獎勵而申報自己生了女兒所造成，而並非出生的女嬰數量真正有所增加。

根據生死登記總處的統計數據，2008年，印度首都的男女出生比例爲1000:1004。

這些數據顯示了該地區新生女嬰和男嬰比例的驚人提升，德里曾是印度次大陸弒殺女嬰最嚴重的地區。

根據生死登記總處數據，在2005年到2007年，德里每出生1000個男孩僅有871個女孩出生。

聯合國人口基金會的尼西姆•坦姆卡亞說，他希望最新的數據是真實的，但是該數據所反映的出生女嬰的數量超過了男嬰有悖自然規律——應該反過來纔對。他說：“這樣的數據是不可能的。”

人口統計學家認爲“自然的”出生率應該是每出生1000個男嬰約有960個女嬰出生。從2005年到2007年間，整個印度出生的女嬰與男嬰比僅爲900：1000。

專家稱，不平衡的性別比例是由數百萬例非法流產女胎以及普遍弒殺女嬰造成的。根據聯合國人口基金會的調查，墮胎在富有人羣中最爲普遍，因爲他們可以通過超聲波掃描來非法鑑定胎兒的性別。

女孩遭歧視主要是因爲嫁妝習慣和遺產慣例都有利於男性。非法的超聲波性別檢測常打出“現在花600盧比，將來省5萬盧比”這樣的標語來做廣告。

作爲反弒嬰行動的一部分，德里市政府以女孩的名義在其出生時爲其存下5000盧比（相當於125美元），以後她只要上學，還能在整個童年期間得到2.5萬盧比。這些錢可以用來支付她繼續接受教育或結婚的費用。

Vocabulary:

stamp out:撲滅；消滅

skewed: distorted 傾斜的；歪曲的（His conception of human nature is skewed. 他對人性的看法帶有偏見。）

dowry:money or property brought by a bride to her husband at marriage（嫁妝）