Case 2 8 Ultrasound Machines India China And A Skewed
CASE 28 Ultrasound Machines, India, China, and a
Skewed Sex Ratio
General Electric Co. and other companies have sold so many ultrasound machines in India that tests are now available in small towns like Indergarh, where there is no drinking water, electricity is infrequent, and roads turn to mud after a March rain shower. A scan typically costs $8, or a week’s wages.
GE has waded into India’s market as the country grapples with a difficult social issue: the abortion of female fetuses by families who want boys. Campaigners against the practice and some government officials are linking the country’s widely reported skewed sex ratio with the spread of ultrasound machines. That’s putting GE, the market leader in India, under the spotlight. It faces legal hurdles, government scrutiny, and thorny business problems in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. “Ultrasound is the main reason the sex ratio is coming down,” says Kalpana Bhavre, who is in charge of women and child welfare for the Datia district government, which includes
Indergarh. Having a daughter is often viewed as incurring a lifetime of debt for parents because of the dowry payment at marriage. Compared with that, the cost of an ultrasound “is nothing,” she says.
For more than a decade, the Indian government has tried to stop ultrasound technology from being used as a tool to determine gender. The devices use sound waves to produce images of fetuses or internal organs for a range of diagnostic purposes. India has passed laws forbidding doctors from disclosing the sex of fetuses, required official registrations of clinics, and stiffened punishments for offenders. Nevertheless, some estimate that hundreds of thousands of girl fetuses are aborted each year.
GE, by far the largest seller of ultrasound machines in India through a joint venture with the Indian outsourcing giant Wipro
Ltd., introduced its own safeguards, even though that means forsaking sales. “We stress emphatically that the machines
Skewed Sex Ratio
General Electric Co. and other companies have sold so many ultrasound machines in India that tests are now available in small towns like Indergarh, where there is no drinking water, electricity is infrequent, and roads turn to mud after a March rain shower. A scan typically costs $8, or a week’s wages.
GE has waded into India’s market as the country grapples with a difficult social issue: the abortion of female fetuses by families who want boys. Campaigners against the practice and some government officials are linking the country’s widely reported skewed sex ratio with the spread of ultrasound machines. That’s putting GE, the market leader in India, under the spotlight. It faces legal hurdles, government scrutiny, and thorny business problems in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. “Ultrasound is the main reason the sex ratio is coming down,” says Kalpana Bhavre, who is in charge of women and child welfare for the Datia district government, which includes
Indergarh. Having a daughter is often viewed as incurring a lifetime of debt for parents because of the dowry payment at marriage. Compared with that, the cost of an ultrasound “is nothing,” she says.
For more than a decade, the Indian government has tried to stop ultrasound technology from being used as a tool to determine gender. The devices use sound waves to produce images of fetuses or internal organs for a range of diagnostic purposes. India has passed laws forbidding doctors from disclosing the sex of fetuses, required official registrations of clinics, and stiffened punishments for offenders. Nevertheless, some estimate that hundreds of thousands of girl fetuses are aborted each year.
GE, by far the largest seller of ultrasound machines in India through a joint venture with the Indian outsourcing giant Wipro
Ltd., introduced its own safeguards, even though that means forsaking sales. “We stress emphatically that the machines