Campaigning against sex-selection in India
Witness History2 Marras 2022

Campaigning against sex-selection in India

Over the last 50 years an estimated 46 million girls have been aborted in India.

The cultural preference for boys and the development of pre-natal sex determination tests like ultrasound in the 1980s, meant an increase in the number of girls being aborted.

Activist Manisha Gupte describes how she campaigned, as part of the feminist movement, against sex-selective abortion - including the use of sit-ins and rallies - eventually raising enough awareness to bring about a national law in 1994 - the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.

The legislation has had limited effect in a complex society with entrenched male preference and poverty.

Manisha has been speaking to Josephine McDermott.

(Photo: Campaigners rally against fetal sex selection in Mumbai in the 1980s. Credit: Dr Vibhuti Patel)

Jaksot(2000)

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

Following the abolishment of Apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa had to find a way to confront its brutal past without endangering the chance for peace. But it was a challenging process for many surv...

11 Joulu 202511min

The discovery of the coelacanth

The discovery of the coelacanth

In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million years.It is thought to be our ancestor and the mi...

10 Joulu 202510min

Dismaland: Banksy's dystopian theme park

Dismaland: Banksy's dystopian theme park

In 2015, Banksy turned a derelict swimming pool in Weston-super-Mare, England, into a dystopian theme park which drew huge crowds and Hollywood stars.Working under cover of darkness, the street artist...

9 Joulu 202510min

The Balcombe Street IRA siege

The Balcombe Street IRA siege

In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small flat owned by a middle-aged couple called John and S...

8 Joulu 20259min

How Lagos Fashion Week began

How Lagos Fashion Week began

In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map. Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of designers internationally.It has grown into a major fash...

5 Joulu 202510min

Wole Soyinka: Imprisoned during Nigeria’s Biafra war

Wole Soyinka: Imprisoned during Nigeria’s Biafra war

In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from the rest of the country. They proclaimed a new Repub...

4 Joulu 202510min

Escaping Nigeria's Biafra war

Escaping Nigeria's Biafra war

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped. In 2021, Patr...

3 Joulu 202510min

Building the New Afrika Shrine in Nigeria

Building the New Afrika Shrine in Nigeria

It's 25 years since the opening of the New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria. A hub for Afrobeat music and culture, it's dedicated to the legacy of Fela Kuti who pioneered the...

2 Joulu 202511min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
i-dont-like-mondays
poks
kolme-kaannekohtaa
antin-palautepalvelu
sita
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
aikalisa
mamma-mia
rss-murhan-anatomia
loukussa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
meidan-pitais-puhua
terapeuttiville-qa
lahko
rss-nikotellen
rss-napy