Click to play videoNew Delhi: It is terrible to be born as a girl especially in Haryana. Girls are not wanted in the state anymore. So there is female foeticide and there are forced marriages.
It is a vicious cycle with one act of crime leading to another.
Sukhjeet is knitting a bright yellow pullover for her baby boy. She gave birth to the boy after she had aborted four girls and she has no regrets.
"Char bache hain aur char ladkiyon ka abortion karwaya hai. Agar nahi karwaya hota to che kudiyan hoti phir kaise byah karati unki? (I aborted four girl child. If I had not done so, I would have had six girls. How would have we got them married?)" she asks.
Sukhjeet's paid Rs 5,000 to kill each of her four unborn girls. Women from Fathehabad, a small village in Haryana, have been travelling all the way to Mansa in Punjab to get rid of their yet-to-be born daughters.
With their ultra-sounds in place, the next stop for a pregnant woman is a nondescript clinic offering no-questions asked abortion.
"Uterus ke andar se hi auzaraon se pehle kaatein hain. kaatke phir jaise bahar nikalte hain (We use some instruments to kill the foetus inside the uterus and then take it out)," explains Dr Ranmat, owner of a clinic.
"Jaise injection ya medicine aate hain medical hall se who maximum Rs 100 ya Rs 150 aur tablet who Rs 250 rupees ke kareeb hai. Bas itne ke aas paas kharcha aa jata hai (The injection and medicines come from a pharmacy shop. The injection costs about Rs 100-150 and the medicine about Rs 250. This is the total cost)," he says.
It is not just Haryana as for the last decade statistics across the country are appalling.
"We have more than 80 lakh girls eliminated in the last 10-15 years. We have about over 30,000 registered clinic and a significant number of them are involved in the crime of sex determination. For the medical profession this is a huge business and they making more than Rs 1000 crore every year," a social activist, Sabu George, says.
For many clinics, sex-selective abortion is all in a days work. This despite the fact that female foeticide is a criminal offence.
When Dr Rammat is asked what happens to the foetus, he nonchalantly replies that they throw it away.
"Aur toh koi tareeka nahi hai isse khatam karne ka. Kahi na kahi toh fekenge (There is no other way. We have to throw it somewhere)," he says.
In India, the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test (PCPNDT) Act conceived way back in 1994 to makes sex-determination based abortion illegal is clearly not a deterrent for these clinics mushrooming in Haryana.
The Minister for Woman and Child Welfare, Renuka Chowdhury, admits the law is not as effective.
"Yes it needs certain amendments. Like appropriate authority was defined as the doctors, obviously they are not going to tell on each other. So we are changing that concept and looking at other issues," Chowdhury says.
Under the PCPNDT Act even advertisements relating to pre-natal determination of sex are prohibited.
Balkit was lucky as she gave birth to a boy in the first go and was saved from the trouble of abortion.
"Haan soch li thi ki agar hogi toh safai karva dungi. Ek ladke ki mansa thi aur woh ho gaya. Jo karna hai ladke ko hi karna hai, ladki ko kya karna. Ladki toh aur paise kharch karati hai. Ladka ne dena hai roti, chai pani. Ladki ne kya karna hai (I decided that if I found out it was a girl, I would get it aborted. Luckily I had a son. It is sons who do everything. What do girls do? Daughters are just a big expense)," Balkit says.
But Balkit's neighbour Suresh is crushed by the burden of fathering three girls. He admits if he were as rich as his next-door neighbours he would have killed his 'extra' daughters.
"Paise hote toh sab kuch kar lete. Aapne hisaab se rakhtey, ek beti rakkhtey. Bete ki chah mein teen ladki ho gaye, ki ab ho jayega, ki ab ho jayega (If I had money, I would have got them aborted. I would have kept just one daughter. I wanted a boy but now I have three girls)," Suresh laments.
"Kandha dega toh ladka dega ladki toh nahi de sakti. Maa baap jis time marte hai toh kandha ladka deta hai ladki toh nahi de sakti (You need a son to perform the last rites. A girl can't do it)," he says.
In Rohtak district, just 70 kilometres from New Delhi, the story is not too different.
Maina Devi has also been through the grind. She produced seven daughters and one son. Her mother-in-law is yet to forgive her.
"Maine to chora manga tha Chori ho gai. Main kya karoon jab doosri chori hui to main to bahoot roi thi (I wanted a boy but she had a daughter. When she had another daughter, I cried)," she says.
Even after she had a son, the greed for more boys got her trying again and again. Now saddled with so many children that Maina Devi has finally gotten herself sterilized.
"Paanch ladkiyan ek ladke ki iccha main hui aur phi laga ki eak aur ho jaye is chakkar do aur ladki ho gai, phir maine operation karwa liya (I had five daughters because I wanted a son. When I had a son, I wanted another son instead I had two more daughters. Now I've got myself operated)," Maina Devi says.
CNN-IBN investigation travelled across Haryana, visiting homes where daughters are not welcome anymore. In Sonepat we met a midwife who admitted that her earnings depend upon the sex of the newly born.
"Kya hota hain jaise male baby hota hain to khush hoke payment karte hain log aur jaise ladki hoti hain to usme mooh pichak jaata hain sabhi ka chehra utar jaata hain (If it is male child then people pay us handsomely but it it's a girl then they are become sad)," Mainawati, a midwife, says.
Kisni Devi and her husband Dayanand have been thrown out of their village. They are outcasts as they have 11 daughters and no son.
They survive on a pension of Rs 300 each. They had to mortgage their property to get their daughters married and they fear that without a son there will be nobody to inherit their property or to will light their pyre.
"Karam mein nahi hai toh kya karun. Karam se hi sabko milta hai (It is all fate. We were not destined to have a son)," Dayanand says.
They are under a debt of Rs 1 lakh and the fellow villagers don't wish to follow the example of a couple who have 11 daughters.
"Yeh barun hatya hua hai. Ssaare Haryana me hota hai. Koi bhi gaao me jaao, ladko ki sankhya jaada hai aur ladkiyo ki kam (Foeticide happens all over Haryana. Wherever you go, there are more boys than girls)," Rajinder Singh, sarpanch of a village in Panipat district, says.
In spite of growing prosperity, in spite of public-awareness campaigns and some efforts at policing, Haryana has not been able to curb female feticide.
The age-old preference for boys and access to ultrasound technology means that female foeticide remains a common practice
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