Female Foeticide- A Heineous Crime

Female foeticide is the act of aborting a fetus because it is female. This is a major social problem in India and has cultural connections with the dowry system that is ingrained in Indian culture, despise the fact that it has been prohibited by law since 1961. This is usually done under familial pressure from the husband or the in-laws or even the woman’s parents. Unplanned pregnancy is generally the reason behind abortion. However, female foeticide is a far more heinous sin than the age old practice of killing an unwanted child, even before it’s born.

This process began in the early 1990s when ultrasound techniques gained widespread use in India. There was a tendency for families to continuously produce children until a male child was born. This was primarily due to the large sexist culture that exists in India against women. This is reflected by literacy rates among women as well as economic participation, which are both particularly low in states where female foeticide is prominent and an unequal population ratio exists alongside. The government initially supported the practice to control population growth.

The Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act was passed in 1994, making sex-selective abortion illegal. It was then modified in 2003 holding medical professionals legally responsible. However, the PCPNDT Act has been poorly enforced by authorities

In India, the child sex ratio (CSR), expressed as the number of girls per 1,000 boys in the age group 0-6, has been continuously declining during the last 40-50 years. It was 976 in 1961, 964 in 1971, 962 in 1981, 945 in 1991, 927 in 2001 and 914 in 2011. The Indo-Canadian team found that in cases where the preceding child was a girl, the sex ratio for the subsequent birth was 759 girls per 1,000 boys. And when the two previous children were girls, the ratio fell even further to 719 girls.

Sex determination is ever increasing in India even though there are strict laws against it. In 1994, the Government of India passed the Pre- conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act with the aim of preventing female foeticide. The implementation of this Act was slow. It was later amended and replaced in 2002 by the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act without ever having been properly implemented.

Medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) is a respectable term for abortion. It follows that the MTP Act 1971 is an abortion law. According to the Act, when the length of pregnancy does not exceed 12 weeks, one medical practitioner can perform abortion; when it exceeds 12 weeks but does not exceed 20 weeks, not less than two practitioners should perform the abortion. The sex of the foetus will not be known until the pregnancy is 12-14 weeks old. Couples opt for female foeticide after the sex of the foetus is known, that is, after the pregnancy is more than 12-14 weeks old.

The MTP Act 1971 allows abortion when continuance of the pregnancy endangers the life or physical/mental health of the woman; if it is going to result in genetic abnormalities in the child; when the pregnancy is caused by rape; or when it occurs as a result of failure of any family planning device or method adopted by the couples. But for an amendment in 2002, which does not affect the present discussion, the 40-year-old law remains, by and large, in the same pristine condition.

The only long-term solution is to change attitudes. Conventionally girls are seen as burdens, as huge dowries have to be paid for their weddings and even if they do earn income, it adds only to the capacities of the family into which they marry. It is said that if a girl child is born in a family, it means that the family has been bestowed with a good luck charm and that they must have done a good deed in their previous life. But then why are people not realising the importance of a girl? Is marriage the only resort of a girl, can’t she live life according to her own means? Can’t she for once decide her life?