_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ India ________________

Killings continue
Convert, nun are new victims
A recent Christian convert was murdered late in November, allegedly by Hindu zealots in the troubled eastern Orissa state. Reports say that Keshaba Tudu was killed for informing the police about the possibility of an attack on Christians of his village. Police arrested three Hindu militants in connection with the killing.

Violence against Christians in the same district of Orissa had made news headlines in January 1999 when Australian Baptist missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive by Hindu extremists while they were sleeping in their van in the remote Manoharpur village.

Last year, the Orissa government enacted the Freedom of Religion bill, under which those wishing to convert to another faith had to seek prior permission from police and local government officials. There have been several reports of Hindu groups harassing those who have dared to become Christians despite the restraints—which have been challenged by Christian groups in the state high court.

Just two weeks after Tudu was killed, a nun was murdered in a remote forest in the diocese of Ambikapur, in central India. Police in the central Chattisgarh state announced that a logger working in the forest has been arrested in connection with the rape and murder of Sister Sarita Toppo, who had been missing for nearly a week after she went out to collect firewood near the village where she was a teacher in a Catholic school.

According to the autopsy finding, the nun was raped before she was murdered. Police also claimed that their suspect—Bahadur Kudako, who was wearing blood-stained clothes when we was arrested—had confessed to raping the nun after finding her alone in the forest. He then reportedly attacked her with an axe when she threatened to inform the villagers.

Sex-selection curbs
Doctors could lose licenses
In a strong measure to curb the widespread practice of sex-selection abortions in India, the federal government has decided to revoke the medical licenses of doctors engaged in the practice.

According to media reports, the federal health ministry has drafted a 22-point new code of conduct for medical professionals, to be enacted as legislation, containing a clause that will punish those who breach the Prenatal Diagnostic (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act of 1994.

Despite the legal ban in force since 1994 on sex-determination tests and female feticide, recent studies have shown that out of every 1,000 unborn children aborted in India, 995 are female. Although abortion is legal in India, the alarming trend toward abortion of female babies was confirmed by a census earlier this year, which showed a steep decline in the proportion of girls among young children. The ratio was particularly skewed in some areas, with the northern Punjab state showing only 793 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6.

The female-to-male ratio in India as a whole has steadily declined in recent years, and now stands at 927 females for 1,000 males. The widespread female feticide and female infanticide in some areas is rooted in a strong cultural preference for sons, sanctioned by Hindu scriptures and aggravated by the exorbitant dowry demands associated with the marriage of women.

Back to Catholic World Report January 2002 Table of Contents