Skewed Sex Ratio in India: Stopping Female Foeticide
analytical Essay
1949 words
BSTRACT:
Through this paper, I would like to address the heinous act of female foeticide practiced at an alarming rate in various Indian states. I would like to focus on how the phenomenon of selectively eliminating female foetus is not dying away, but rather is emerging as a new disturbing trend. I even wish to highlight how with rapid advancement, technologies such as ultrasound and pre-natal diagnosis are being misused in order to find the gender of the infant.
What I wish to mainly examine is the failure of implementation of the PNDT Act. Along with it, I critically wish to analyze why despite awareness being created against such crime there hasn't been much substantial reduction achieved in this matter.
I plan to structure the paper as such where initially I shall be dealing with what is female infanticide and foeticide. What thin line distinguishes the two and what has kept this practice intact despite 66 years of Independence. Later I shall point out how the law has been misused largely to dispose off the unwanted girl child, which instead were in first place made to ensure them being born. And this will be followed by a conclusion.
INTRODUCTION:
It has been 66 years since India has gained Independence by driving away the colonial forces. From 1947 till date, India as a nation has successfully tackled and surpassed most of its hindrances to walk down the path of modernization, advancement and prosperity. But we shouldn't get disillusioned just by the rosy picture India projects on global forum as the other side of the coin highlights the gloomy portrayal of widespread corruption, mass unemployment, casteism, poverty and illiteracy which is steadily crippling the nation's identity. Despite many measures taken to eradicate i...
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...a law banning the advertising and use of prenatal diagnostic technologies for the purpose of sex determination. Similar actions were taken in some other states by social activists. Soon the issue was brought into national focus, and it eventually culminated with the central government’s bill i.e.the Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique (PNDT) Act of 1994.
The Act was supposed to prohibit the use of STDs (including ultra sonogram) which were used for determining the sex of the fetus. It further prohibited the advertising of such technologies for detection of sex. It had provision to punish people conducting these tests as well as people seeking for this test. "Under the Act, prenatal diagnostic techniques could only be used for the detecting abnormalities under certain conditions by registered institutions"4 (Chauhan 1998; Kapur, Khan & Radhakrishnan 1999 and Kumar1994).
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes the linkage between female foeticide and female infanticide in stish agnihotri's book, sex ratio patterns in the indian population: a fresh exploration.
- Explains that female foeticide started to boom after the introduction of prenatal diagnostic technologies that could detect the sex of the child at intial stages.
- Aims to address the heinous act of female foeticide practiced at an alarming rate in various indian states.
- Opines that india's gloomy portrayal of widespread corruption, mass unemployment, casteism, poverty and illiteracy is steadily crippling its identity.
- Explains that female infanticide is the traditional method used for getting rid of undesired girl children. female foeticide uses sophisticated techniques to remove the foetus before it is born.
- Explains that censuses of 1991 and 2001 have revealed contradictory trends.
- Analyzes the pervasive decline in the child sex ratio and its pronounced impact in cities such as delhi, chandigarh, surat, mumbai, kolkata etc.
- Concludes that fetal determination is a "reprehensible practice" due to the strong cultural and economic preferences for sons over daughters.
- Explains that the maharashtra government passed a law banning the use of prenatal diagnostic technologies for the purpose of sex determination in 1988.
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1585 wordsRead More