Hundreds of women on Wednesday in the Indian state of Orissa protested against sex-selective abortion and killing of recently born female infants after local authorities discovered a number of cases involving the practice, Reuters reports (Reuters, 8/1).

Orissa officials last week found 40 skulls of female fetuses and newborn infants in an abandoned well. State police on Tuesday found 14 clay jars believed to contain fetuses in a field near the town of Cuttack, Amitabh Thaku, police superintendent, said. Two employees of a private nursing home have been detained for questioning, Thaku said (AP/International Herald Tribune, 8/1). He added that authorities had "sealed the clinic" in the state's capital Bhubaneswar and "are exploring all legal options."

The protesters marched through Bhubaneswar carrying signs that read "hang the murderers" and "spare the girls." They called on the government to "crack down harder" on private clinics allegedly involved in illegal sex determination and sex-selective abortion, Reuters reports (Reuters, 8/1). According to the AP/Herald Tribune, protestors also blocked a road in Cuttack (AP/International Herald Tribune, 8/1).

According to a UNICEF report released in December 2006, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born daily in India, and about 10 million fewer girls than expected were born in the past 20 years. The most recent Indian census figures found that the gender ratio decreased from 947 girls per 1,000 boys to 927 girls per 1,000 boys from 1991 to 2001. The country in 1994 approved the Prenatal Determination Act, which bans the use of technologies, such as ultrasounds and sonograms, for the purpose of sex-selective abortion. The law also bans advertisements for prenatal sex determination, as well as the practice of preconception sex selection.

Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury last month announced that the Indian government is planning to create a national registry of all pregnancies and abortions performed in the country in an effort to curb sex-selective abortion and infant mortality. The government would like to have public and private health centers, hospitals and maternity homes in the country to record pregnancies and abortions. The government also aims to increase the number of health workers who will locate and provide care to pregnant women in rural areas (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/27).