(GENDER JUSTICE LAW PROJECT)

“FEMALE FOETICIDE IN INDIA”

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF BA LLB FIVE YEARS

CURRICULUM

ARMY INSTITUTE OF LAW, MOHALI

2016-2021

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Mrs. AMRITA RATHI GARIMA BHADORIA

(ASST. PROFESSOR OF LAW) 1634

(6TH SEMESTER)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to express my humble gratitude and personal regards to Mrs.
AMRITA RATHI for inspiring me and guiding me during the course of this project work
and also for her cooperation and guidance from time to time during the course of this project
work on the topic FEMALE FOETICIDE IN INDIA

MOHALI GARIMA BHADORIA

1634
 INTRODUCTION

Female foeticide in India is the abortion of a female foetus outside of legal

methods. The frequency of female foeticide in India is increasing day by day.
The natural sex ratio is assumed to be between 103 and 107, and any number
above it is considered as suggestive of female foeticide. According to the
decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0 to 6 age group in India has risen
from 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961,to 104.2 in 1980, to 107.5 in 2001, to
108.9 in 2011.
The child sex ratio is within the normal natural range in all eastern and southern
states of India,but significantly higher in certain western and particularly
northwestern states such as Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir (118, 120
and 116, as of 2011, respectively).The western states of Maharashtra and
Rajasthan 2011 census found a child sex ratio of 113, Gujarat at 112 and Uttar
Pradesh at 111.
The Indian census data suggests there is a positive correlation between
abnormal sex ratio and better socio-economic status and literacy. This may be
connected to the dowry system in India where dowry deaths occur when a girl is
seen as a financial burden. Urban India has higher child sex ratio than rural
India according to 1991, 2001 and 2011 Census data, implying higher
prevalence of female foeticide in urban India. Similarly, child sex ratio greater
than 115 boys per 100 girls is found in regions where the predominant majority
is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian; furthermore "normal" child sex ratio of
104 to 106 boys per 100 girls are also found in regions where the predominant
majority is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. These data contradict any
hypotheses that may suggest that sex selection is an archaic practice which takes
place among uneducated, poor sections or particular religion of the Indian
society.
There is an ongoing debate as to whether these high sex ratios are only caused
by female foeticide or some of the higher ratio is explained by natural causes.
The Indian government has passed Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques Act (PCPNDT) in 1994 to ban and punish prenatal sex screening
and female foeticide. It is currently illegal in India to determine or disclose sex
of the foetus to anyone. However, there are concerns that PCPNDT Act has
been poorly enforced by authorities.
 HIGH SEX RATIO IMPLICATION
One school of scholars suggest that any birth sex ratio of boys to girls that is
outside of the normal 105-107 range, necessarily implies sex-selective abortion.
These scholar claim that both the sex ratio at birth and the population sex ratio
are remarkably constant in human populations. Significant deviations in birth
sex ratios from the normal range can only be explained by manipulation, that is
sex-selective abortion. In a widely cited article, Amartya Sen compared the
birth sex ratio in Europe (106) and United States (105) with those in Asia
(107+) and argued that the high sex ratios in East Asia, West Asia and South
Asia may be due to excessive female mortality. Sen pointed to research that had
shown that if men and women receive similar nutritional and medical attention
and good health care then females have better survival rates, and it is the male
which is the genetically fragile sex. Sen estimated 'missing women' from extra
women who would have survived in Asia if it had the same ratio of women to
men as Europe and United States. According to Sen, the high birth sex ratio
over decades, implies a female shortfall of 11% in Asia, or over 100 million
women as missing from the 3 billion combined population of India, other South
Asian countries, West Asia, North Africa and China.1
India's Son Preference Leads to High Sex Ratio
There is a strong son preference in India and this leads to a high sex ratio
prioritizing male lives over female lives. This graph depicts a typical Indian
family's indifference curves between wanting to have a daughter or a son. Most
families find greater utility in having a son so the curves are higher up on the y
axis. When having a female becomes more expensive (due to dowry prices, lack
of financial return in the future, educational and health expenses) then the
budget curve has to swing inward on the x axis. Even though the budget stays
the same, it is relatively more expensive to have a girl than to have a boy.
The substitution effect shows that people move from point A on the first
indifference curve to point B on the second indifference curve. They move from
an already low number of females due to social reasons to even fewer daughters
than before due to the added financial liability of daughters being more
expensive. The number of males grows and the contrasting increase and
decrease in quantities results in a high sex ratio. This is based on the unitary
model of the household where the household is seen as a single decision making
entity under the same budget constraint. However, the non-unitary model of
households argues that people have different preferences in a family and are
able to carry those out according to their level of bargaining power. In India, the
unitary model is more likely to occur because of the patriarchal society that

1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_foeticide_in_India
prioritizes male opinion and bargaining power in the household. This is not to
say that all households follow this model, but enough of them do that it results
in a high sex ratio.
ORIGIN
Female foeticide has been linked to the arrival, in the early 1990s, of
affordable ultrasound technology and its widespread adoption in India. Obstetric
ultrasonography, either transvaginally or transabdominally, checks for various
markers of fetal sex. It can be performed at or after week 12 of pregnancy. At
this point, 3⁄4 of fetal sexes can be correctly determined, according to a 2001
study. Accuracy for males is approximately 50% and for females almost 100%.
When performed after week 13 of pregnancy, ultrasonography gives an accurate
result in almost 100% of cases.
Availability
Ultrasound technology arrived in China and India in 1979, but its expansion
was slower in India. Ultrasound sex discernment technologies were first
introduced in major cities of India in 1980s, its use expanded in India's urban
regions in 1990s, and became widespread in 2000s.
Magnitude estimates for female foeticide
Estimates for female foeticide vary by scholar. One group estimates more than
10 million female foetuses may have been illegally aborted in India since 1990s,
and 500,000 girls were being lost annually due to female foeticide. MacPherson
estimates that 100,000 abortions every year continue to be performed in India
solely because the fetus is female. 2

2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_foeticide_in_India
 REASONS FOR FEMALE FOETICIDE
Various theories have been proposed as possible reasons for sex-selective
abortion. Culture is favored by some researchers, while some favor disparate
gender-biased access to resources. Some demographers question whether sex-
selective abortion or infanticide claims are accurate, because underreporting of
female births may also explain high sex ratios. reasons may also explain some
of the abnormal sex ratios. Klasen and Wink suggest India and China’s high sex
ratios are primarily the result of sex-selective abortion.
Cultural preference
One school of scholars suggest that female foeticide can be seen through history
and cultural background. Generally, male babies were preferred because they
provided manual labor and success the family lineage. The selective abortion of
female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male
children over female children for a variety of social and economic reasons.A
son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn and support the family; a
daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off to another family, and so
will not contribute financially to her parents. Female foeticide then, is a
continuation in a different form, of a practice of female infanticide or
withholding of postnatal health care for girls in certain households.
Furthermore, in some cultures sons are expected to take care of their parents in
their old age. These factors are complicated by the effect of diseases on child
sex ratio, where communicable and noncommunicable diseases affect males and
females differently.
Disparate gendered access to resource
Some of the variation in birth sex ratios and implied female foeticide may be
due to disparate access to resources. As MacPherson (2007) notes, there can be
significant differences in gender violence and access to food, healthcare,
immunizations between male and female children. This leads to high infant and
childhood mortality among girls, which causes changes in sex ratio.
Disparate, gendered access to resources appears to be strongly linked to
socioeconomic status. Specifically, poorer families are sometimes forced to
ration food, with daughters typically receiving less priority than sons (Klasen
and Wink 2003). However, Klasen’s 2001 study revealed that this practice is
less common in the poorest families, but rises dramatically in the slightly less
poor families. Klasen and Wink’s 2003 study suggests that this is “related to
greater female economic independence and fewer cultural strictures among the
poorest sections of the population.” In other words, the poorest families are
typically less bound by cultural expectations and norms, and women tend to
have more freedom to become family breadwinners out of necessity.3
Lopez and Ruzikah (1983) found that, when given the same resources, women
tend to outlive men at all stages of life after infancy. However, globally,
resources are not always allocated equitably. Thus, some scholars argue that
disparities in access to resources such as healthcare, education, and nutrition
play at least a small role in the high sex ratios seen in some parts of the world.
Dowry system
Even though the Dowry System legally ended with the Dowry Prohibition Act
of 1961, the impossibility of monitoring families and the prevalence of
corruption have led to its continuance all over India.A dowry is a payment from
the bride's family to the groom's family at the time of marriage. It is often found
in "socially stratified, monogamous societies that are economically complex and
where women have a relatively small productive role". Theoretically, marriage
results in partners choosing the mate who best maximizes their utility and there
is equal distribution of returns to both participants. The outcome is pareto
optimal and reaches equilibrium when no one can be better off with any other
partner or choosing not to marry. However, if both partners do not share an
equal distribution of the returns then there must be a transfer of funds between
them in order to reach efficiency. In Indian society, the rise of economic growth
has allowed men to work in "productive" jobs and gain an income, but many
women are not afforded these opportunities. Therefore, women and their
families have to compete for men and pay a dowry as a transaction payment to
make up for the lack of productive inputs they bring into a marriage.[30]Dowries
have been rising in India for the last six decades and increased 15 percent
annually between 1921 and 1981. Women are valued less in this partnership and
therefore are asked to pay in order to gain the benefits a man brings. The power
hierarchy and financial obligation created through this system help perpetuate
acts like female foeticide and a high son preference. Additionally,
the technological progress leading to sex selective abortions lowers the cost of
discrimination and many people think that it is better to pay a "500 rupees now
(abortion) instead of 50,000 rupees in the future (dowry).
India's weak social security system
Another reason for this male preference is based on the economic benefits of
having a son and the costs of having a daughter. In India, there is a very
limited social security system so parents look to their sons to ensure their
futures and care for them in old age. Daughters are liabilities because they have
to leave to another family once they are married and cannot take care of their
3
https://blog.ipleaders.in/laws-female-foeticide-india/
parents. Additionally, they do not contribute economically to the family wealth
and are costly because of the dowry system. People in India usually see men's
work as "productive" and contributing the family, while the social perception of
female labor does not have that connotation. This also ties to the fact that it is
easier for men in India to get high paying jobs and provide financially for their
families. Women need increased access to education and economic resources in
order to reach that level of gainful employment and change people's perceptions
of daughters being financial liabilities. With this cost and benefit analysis, many
families come to the conclusion that they must prioritize male children's lives
over female lives in order to ensure their financial future.4

4
https://blog.ipleaders.in/laws-female-foeticide-india/
 CONSEQUENCES OF DECLINING SEX RATIO
The following table presents the child sex ratio data for India's states and union
territories, according to 2011 Census of India for population count in the 0-1
age group.The data suggests 18 states/UT had birth sex ratio higher than 107
implying excess males at birth and/or excess female mortalities after birth but
before she reaches the age of 1, 13 states/UT had normal child sex ratios in the
0-1 age group, and 4 states/UT had birth sex ratio less than 103 implying excess
females at birth and/or excess male mortalities after birth but before he reaches
the age of 1.
Marriage Market and Importation of Brides
Classic economic theory views the market for marriage as one in which people
bargain for a spouse who maximizes their utility gains from marriage.In India,
many of these bargains actually take place within the family and therefore
individual utility is replaced by family utility. In this marriage market, men and
their families are trying to maximize their utility, which creates a supply and
demand for wives. However, female foeticide and a high sex ratio have high
implications for this market. Dharma Kumar, argues that, "Sex selection at
conception will reduce the supply of women, they will become more valuable,
and female children will be better cared for and will live longer". In the graph,
this is depicted by the leftward shift of the supply curve and the subsequent
decrease in quantity of females from Q1 to Q2 and increase in their value from
P1 to P2. However, this model does not work for the situation in India because
it does not account for the common act of males importing brides from other
regions. A low supply of women results in men and their families trafficking
women from other areas and leads to increased sexual violence and abuse
against women and children, increased child marriages, and increased maternal
deaths due to forced abortions and early marriages. This ends up devaluing
women instead of the presumed effect of increasing their value.
In the graph, the supply of brides outside each village, locality, or region is
depicted as 'supply foreign'. This foreign supply values the price of getting a
wife at much cheaper than the first domestic price P1 and the second domestic
price P2. Therefore, due to the decrease of women domestically due to sex
selection and the low price of foreign women (because they are often bought as
slaves or kidnapped), the resulting gap of imported women is from Q3 to Q4.
Women act like imports in an international trade market if the import price is
lower than the high price of domestic dowries with a low supply of women. The
foreign price is lower than the market price and this results in even fewer
domestic brides than without importation (Q3 instead of Q2). In turn, this
creates a self-fulfilling cycle of limiting females domestically and continually
importing them and there is no end to the cycle of female feticide if these acts
can continue and importation is an option.5
The imported brides are known as "paros" and are treated like slaves because
they have no cultural, regional, or familial ties to their husbands before being
brought into their homes. One of the field studies in Haryana revealed that more
than 9000 married women are bought from other Indian states as imported
brides. This act also results in wife sharing and polyandry by family members in
some areas of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Punjab, which maintains the gender
imbalance if one family can make do with only one female. For example, the
polyandrous Toda of Nilgiri Hills in southern India practiced female infanticide
in order to maintain a certain demographic imbalance.
Negative spillovers of pre-natal sex selection and female foeticide
When families choose to partake in pre-natal sex selection through illegal
ultrasounds or abortions, they impart a negative spillover on society. These
include increased gender disparity, a high sex ratio, lives lost, lack of
development, and abuse and violence against women and children. Families do
not often keep this spillover in mind and this results in sex selection and female
foeticide, which hurts society as a whole.
Empirical study on male/female child mortality
A study by Satish B. Agnihotri infers the gender bias in India by studying the
relationship between male and female infant and child mortality rates in the face
of mortality as a whole looking like it is decreasing. Hypothetically, if males
and females are identical, then there should be no difference in mortality rates
and no gender gap. However, male and female children are perceived as
psychologically and socially different so the equation relating mortality looks
like this: MRf = a + b*MRm. MRf is female child mortality, a is residual female
mortality when male mortality is 0, the slope b shows the rate of decline in
female mortality for a decline in male mortality, and MRm is male mortality. In
India, the infant mortality equation for 1982-1997 was IMRf = 6.5 + 0.93*
IMRm, which shows that there is a high level of residual female mortality and
male mortality declines slightly faster than female mortality. The author then
breaks down the information by states and rural or urban population. Many
states, like Haryana, that are known for high levels of female mortality have
slopes greater than 1, which seems counterintuitive. However, this actually goes
to show that pre-natal selection may reduce the extent of infanticide or poor
treatment of girls who are born. It has a substitution effect on the post-natal
discrimination and replaces its effects instead of adding to it. Additionally,
urban households usually have a high constant term and a low slope. This shows
5
http://www.satyamevjayate.in/female-foeticide/a-law-with-more-teeth.aspx
that simply reducing mortality may not result in a subsequent reduction of
female mortality. This research goes to show the extent of gender discrimination
in India and how this affects the high sex ratio. It is important to not only target
mortality, but specifically female mortality if there is to be any change in gender
disparities.6
LAWS AND REGULATION

India passed its first abortion-related law, the so-called Medical Termination of
Pregnancy Act of 1971, making abortion legal in most states, but specified
legally acceptable reasons for abortion such as medical risk to mother and rape.
The law also established physicians who can legally provide the procedure and
the facilities where abortions can be performed, but did not anticipate female
foeticide based on technology advances.With increasing availability of sex
screening technologies in India through the 1980s in urban India, and claims of
its misuse, the Government of India passed the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques
Act (PNDT) in 1994. This law was further amended into the Pre-Conception
and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse)
(PCPNDT) Act in 2004 to deter and punish prenatal sex screening and female
foeticide. However, there are concerns that PCPNDT Act has been poorly
enforced by authorities.
The impact of Indian laws on female foeticide and its enforcement is
unclear. United Nations Population Fund and India's National Human Rights
Commission, in 2009, asked the Government of India to assess the impact of the
law. The Public Health Foundation of India, an premier research organization in
its 2010 report, claimed a lack of awareness about the Act in parts of India,
inactive role of the Appropriate Authorities, ambiguity among some clinics that
offer prenatal care services, and the role of a few medical practitioners in
disregarding the law. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India has
targeted education and media advertisements to reach clinics and medical
professionals to increase awareness. The Indian Medical Association has
undertaken efforts to prevent prenatal sex selection by giving its members Beti
Bachao (save the daughter) badges during its meetings and
conferences. However, a recent study by Nandi and Deolalikar (2013) argues
that the 1994 PNDT Act may have had a small impact by preventing 106,000
female foeticides over one decade.
According to a 2007 study by MacPherson, prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act
(PCPNDT Act) was highly publicized by NGOs and the government. Many of
the ads used depicted abortion as violent, creating fear of abortion itself within

6
http://www.satyamevjayate.in/female-foeticide/a-law-with-more-teeth.aspx
the population. The ads focused on the religious and moral shame associated
with abortion. MacPherson claims this media campaign was not effective
because some perceived this as an attack on their character, leading to many
becoming closed off, rather than opening a dialogue about the issue. This
emphasis on morality, claims MacPherson, increased fear and shame associated
with all abortions, leading to an increase in unsafe abortions in India.
The government of India, in a 2011 report, has begun better educating all
stakeholders about its MTP and PCPNDT laws. In its communication
campaigns, it is clearing up public misconceptions by emphasizing that sex
determination is illegal, but abortion is legal for certain medical conditions in
India. The government is also supporting implementation of programs and
initiatives that seek to reduce gender discrimination, including media campaign
to address the underlying social causes of sex selection.
Given the dismal Child Sex Ratio in the country, and the Supreme Court
directive of 2003 to State governments to enforce the law banning the use of sex
determination technologies, the Ministry set up a National Inspection and
Monitoring Committee (NIMC). Dr. Rattan Chand, Director (PNDT) was made
the convenor of the NIMC. The NIMC under the guidance of Dr. Rattan Chand
conducted raids in some of the districts in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat. In April, it conducted raids on three
clinics in Delhi. In its reports sent to the Chief Secretaries of the respective
States, the committee observed that the Authorities had failed to monitor or
supervise the registered clinics.
Laws passed in India to alleviate female foeticide

Year
Other Legislation Goals
Passed

Dowry Prohibition Prohibits families from taking a dowry,

1961
Act punishable with imprisonment

Hindu Marriage Act 1955 Rules around marriage and divorce for Hindus

Deals with the legal process of adopting

Hindu Adoption and
1956 children and the legal obligation to provide
Maintenance Act
"maintenance" for other family members
Immoral Traffic
1986 Stops sex trafficking and exploitation
Prevention Act

Equal Remuneration Prevents monetary discrimination between

1976
Act men and women in the workforce

Female Infanticide Prevents female infanticide (Act passed in

1870
Act British India)

Ban on ultrasound
1996 Bans prenatal sex determination
testing

Central and state government schemes to alleviate female foeticide and

child mortality
Other recent policy initiatives adopted by many states of India, claims
Guilmoto, attempt to address the assumed economic disadvantage of girls by
offering support to girls and their parents. These policies provide conditional
cash transfer and scholarships only available to girls, where payments to a girl
and her parents are linked to each stage of her life, such as when she is born,
completion of her childhood immunization, her joining school at grade 1, her
completing school grades 6, 9 and 12, her marriage past age 21. Some states are
offering higher pension benefits to parents who raise one or two girls. Different
states of India have been experimenting with various innovations in their girl-
driven welfare policies. For example, the state of Delhi adopted a pro-girl policy
initiative (locally called Laadli scheme), which initial data suggests may be
lowering the birth sex ratio in the state. These types of government programs
and schemes are a type of redistribution in an attempt to further development in
the country. The central and state governments in India have noticed the
country's failure to deal with female foeticide on its own and have come up with
programs to deal with the problem at hand.
A serious flaw that makes all of these programs ineffective is that they target
only lower-income households, while ignoring the population of higher-income
households also partaking in female foeticide. Sex determination tests and sex
selective abortions are prevalent more amongst affluent families. For example,
upper-class families in Haryana have high rates of foeticide and infanticide and
the programs do not target these families. A study in Haryana found that the sex
ratio at birth for upper caste women was 127 males for 100 females, compared
with 102 with lower caste women. While cash transfers successfully improve
school enrollment and immunization rates for girls, they do not directly address
parent’s demand for sons and gender-biased sex selection. Additionally, a study
conducted by Bijayalaxmi Nanda, an associate professor of political science at
Delhi University, found that many of the beneficiaries of the Delhi Ladli
Scheme wanted to use the money received for marriage rather than educational
expenses. Another problem with these government conditional cash transfers is
that many of them only target the first two daughters in a family and have no
incentive for families to have more than two daughters. These non-linear
incentive models do not result in the same increase in benefits as the inputs and
cash transfers put in by the government. Additionally, they only incentivize a
change in behavior until an age, educational, number of daughters threshold and
do not prompt people to act beyond these guidelines.
Select Schemes by the Central and State Governments

Central or
Year
Program State Benefits
Passed
Government

Cash transfer to mother based

Balika Samriddhi Central on child meeting educational
1997
Yojana Government conditions and partaking in
income generating activities

Cash transfers to family after

Central meeting conditions
Dhan Laxmi Scheme 2008
Government (immunization, education,
insurance)

Cash transfers to 2 girl

children in a family after
Kanya Jagriti Jyoti
1996 Punjab meeting conditions
Scheme
(immunization, education,
insurance)
Beti Bachao, Beti Central Cash transfers based on
2015
Padhao Yojana Government educational attainment

For the survival, protection,

and development of girl
National Plan of Central children. Goals include ending
1992
Action Government female feticide, reducing
gender disparity, and giving
girls better access to resources

Cash transfer to couple

accepting terminal method of
Devirupak 2002 Haryana family planning (vasectomy,
tubectomy) after birth of 1st or
2nd child

Cash transfer based on

Delhi Ladli Scheme 2008 Delhi educational attainment for first
2 daughters

Cash transfer if daughter

Apni Beti Apna
1994 Haryana reaches the age of 18 without
Dhan
being married

Cash transfer based on age

Girl Child Protection Andhra and educational attainment.
2005
Scheme Pradesh Family also has to partake in
family planning

Beti Hai Anmol Himachal Interest earned on back

2010 account in daughter's name
Scheme Pradesh
and cash scholarships for each
 year of school

Cash transfer based on age

and educational attainment.
Bhagya Laxmi
2007 Karnataka Cash provided to families for
Scheme
natural death, health
insurance, and scholarships

Mukhyamantri
Kanya Suraksha
Cash transfers to poor families
Yojna and 2008 Bihar
with two daughters
Mukhyamantri
Kanya Vivah Yojna

Indra Gandhi Balika Himachal Cash transfers based on age

2007
Suraksha Yojana Pradesh attainment

Madhya
Cash transfers based on
Ladli Laxami Yojna 2006 Pradesh,
educational attainment
Jharkhand

Cash monthly transfers for

Rakshak Yojana 2005 Punjab
families with 2 girls

Cash transfer for marriage

Mukhyamantri Madhya assistance if the family waits
2017
Kanyadan Yojna Pradesh until the legal age to marry off
their daughter

Interest earned on bank

Sukanya Samriddhi Central
2015 account opened for daughter
Account Government
after she turns 21
 CONCLUSION
Increasing awareness of the problem has led to multiple campaigns by
celebrities and journalists to combat sex-selective abortions. Aamir
Khan devoted the first episode "Daughters Are Precious" of his show Satyamev
Jayate to raise awareness of this widespread practice, focusing primarily on
Western Rajasthan, which is known to be one of the areas where this practice is
common. Its sex ratio dropped to 883 girls per 1,000 boys in 2011 from 901
girls to 1000 boys in 2001. Rapid response was shown by local government in
Rajasthan after the airing of this show, showing the effect of media and
nationwide awareness on the issue. A vow was made by officials to set up fast-
track courts to punish those who practice sex-based abortion. They cancelled the
licences of six sonography centres and issued notices to over 20 others.
This has been done on the smaller scale. Cultural intervention has been
addressed through theatre. Plays such as 'Pacha Mannu', which is about female
infanticide/foeticide, has been produced by a women's theatre group in Tamil
Nadu. This play was showing mostly in communities that practice female
infanticide/foeticide and has led to a redefinition of a methodology of
consciousness raising, opening up varied ways of understanding and subverting
cultural expressions.
The Mumbai High Court ruled that prenatal sex determination implied female
foeticide. Sex determination violated a woman's right to live and was against
India's Constitution.
The Beti Bachao, or Save girls campaign, has been underway in many Indian
communities since the early 2000s. The campaign uses the media to raise
awareness of the gender disparities creating, and resulting from, sex-selective
abortion. Beti Bachao activities include rallies, posters, short videos and
television commercials, some of which are sponsored by state and local
governments and other organisations. Many celebrities in India have publicly
supported the Beti Bachao campaign.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_foeticide_in_India
2. https://blog.ipleaders.in/laws-female-foeticide-india/
3. http://www.satyamevjayate.in/female-foeticide/a-law-with-more-teeth.aspx
4. https://sites.google.com/a/mtholyoke.edu/female-foeticide/matrix