PNS | Kochi
Anxieties over possibility of the offspring bearing congenital disorders due to Endosulfan poisoning are reportedly forcing women of Kasaragod in Kerala – the area with the largest number of Endosulfan victims in the world – to commit feticide even as Kasaragod hosted a national convention on Sunday as part of extending the anti-pesticide agitation to the national level.
Reports from the Endosulfan-hit areas like Bovikkanam, Enkamaje, Perla and Periya in Kasaragod show that more and more women are resorting to termination of their pregnancies out of the fear that the offspring might bear serious congenital diseases. Babies with serious disorders were being born in the area for the past twenty years.
Continuous aerial spraying of Endosulfan in the cashew plantations in 11 panchayats of Kasaragod district for two decades since 1980 has so far caused the death of about 600 people and serious health disorders like cancers, dermatological problems, reproductive disorders, early maturing in females and non-maturing of males in about 10,000 people.
A mother in Bovikkanam admitted to the media that she had terminated her pregnancy in 2007 out of fear of giving birth to “yet another baby” with congenital health disorders. She said she had got the pregnancy terminated at a clinic in Mangalore after convincing her husband of its need. She said she knew several other women who had committed feticide out of the same fear.
“My first baby was born with an oversized head and an undersized body. This is not unseen in this place. Babies are being born here with such disorders even now. After scanning, the doctor told me that the fetus had disorders similar to those of my first baby. I could not think of bringing yet another baby to the world knowing that it would live its whole life in suffering,” she said.
Anxieties over possibility of the offspring bearing congenital disorders due to Endosulfan poisoning are reportedly forcing women of Kasaragod in Kerala – the area with the largest number of Endosulfan victims in the world – to commit feticide even as Kasaragod hosted a national convention on Sunday as part of extending the anti-pesticide agitation to the national level.
Reports from the Endosulfan-hit areas like Bovikkanam, Enkamaje, Perla and Periya in Kasaragod show that more and more women are resorting to termination of their pregnancies out of the fear that the offspring might bear serious congenital diseases. Babies with serious disorders were being born in the area for the past twenty years.
Continuous aerial spraying of Endosulfan in the cashew plantations in 11 panchayats of Kasaragod district for two decades since 1980 has so far caused the death of about 600 people and serious health disorders like cancers, dermatological problems, reproductive disorders, early maturing in females and non-maturing of males in about 10,000 people.
A mother in Bovikkanam admitted to the media that she had terminated her pregnancy in 2007 out of fear of giving birth to “yet another baby” with congenital health disorders. She said she had got the pregnancy terminated at a clinic in Mangalore after convincing her husband of its need. She said she knew several other women who had committed feticide out of the same fear.
“My first baby was born with an oversized head and an undersized body. This is not unseen in this place. Babies are being born here with such disorders even now. After scanning, the doctor told me that the fetus had disorders similar to those of my first baby. I could not think of bringing yet another baby to the world knowing that it would live its whole life in suffering,” she said.
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