Campaigning against sex-selection in India
Witness History2 Nov 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)

Avsnitt(2000)

Marcel Duchamp and the urinal that changed art

Marcel Duchamp and the urinal that changed art

In October 1942, the great French conceptualist artist Marcel Duchamp helped put on the first major surrealist exhibition in New York. Carroll Janis's parents were friends of Duchamp.Louise Hidalgo sp...

7 Apr 10min

Straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa

On 15 December 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened to the public after an unprecedented 11-year closure. Famous worldwide for its dramatic lean, the tower also became, during the 1990s, the most ...

6 Apr 9min

The first commercially successful electronic cigarette

The first commercially successful electronic cigarette

In the summer of 2003, pharmacist Hon Lik was one of millions of smokers in China.He was coughing a lot and having problems with his breathing and wondered if he could make an alternative cigarette.Af...

3 Apr 10min

Spain welcomes Picasso’s Guernica

Spain welcomes Picasso’s Guernica

In 1981 one of the world’s most iconic works of art – Guernica - was finally handed to Spain after a 44-year exile.Pablo Picasso had created the huge mural in 1937 followed the bombing of the Basque t...

2 Apr 10min

New Nordic cuisine

New Nordic cuisine

In 2004, Danish food entrepreneur Claus Meyer launched the ‘Nordic Kitchen Manifesto’, kick-starting a revolution in Nordic cooking focused on local seasonal ingredients. The new approach was most fam...

1 Apr 10min

The discovery of the Terra Nova shipwreck

The discovery of the Terra Nova shipwreck

In 2012, a team of researchers discovered one of the most famous polar shipwrecks - the Terra Nova.The ship was famous for carrying Britain’s doomed explorers in their race to reach the South Pole mor...

31 Mars 10min

Echo and the elephants

Echo and the elephants

In 1972, the world’s longest-running study of wild elephants was first launched in Kenya, making a star of one of its subjects – Echo.For decades, the Amboseli Elephant Research Project followed Echo ...

30 Mars 10min

Anthony Bourdain's Don't Eat Before Reading This

Anthony Bourdain's Don't Eat Before Reading This

In April 1999, Anthony Bourdain's essay Don't Eat Before Reading This was published. It was an unfiltered look into restaurant kitchen culture. It launched his career as a celebrity chef. He changed t...

27 Mars 10min

Populärt inom Samhälle & Kultur

podme-dokumentar
en-mork-historia
aftonbladet-krim
p3-dokumentar
gynning-berg
svenska-fall
creepypodden-med-jack-werner
skaringer-nessvold
hor-har
mardromsgasten
killradet
flashback-forever
rss-brottsutredarna
historiska-brott
aftonbladet-daily
kod-katastrof
vad-blir-det-for-mord
rss-mer-an-bara-morsa
rss-nemo-moter-en-van
rattsfallen