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Female Foeticide in Focus

Female Foeticide refers to a phenomenon where female foetuses are aborted purely because of their biological sex. Some view it in the extreme as “gendercide”, and it is prevalent in countries where son preference is exhibited, and where women face discrimination in all spheres, because of socio-structural and cultural inequality which brands women as burdens.

Prenatal sex-determination tests, taken with the intention of preventing female births are a clear manifestation of violence against women.  Female foeticide has been referred to as a ‘refined’ version of female infanticide[1]; a luxury of those families who can afford to use sex-determination to avoid infanticide and its moral and legal implications.

Female Foeticide or Sex Selective Abortion? 

The term “sex selective abortion” (SSA) is generally used in more academic and technical discussions to refer to this issue. CSR uses both terms in its work, depending on the audience and context of the situation. Within India the phrase “female foeticide” is more widely understood, however unfortunately there is no direct Hindi translation of the English which is not a loaded phrase, which poses some difficulty in awareness raising on the issue. 

India : The Contemporary Picture  

In January 2006, the British medical journal The Lancet published research that estimated over the last 20 years as many as 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India . Since this estimate was published, there have been challenges that the real number is significantly lower than this, however sex selective abortions are still overwhelmingly a great problem in India . In UNICEF’s 2007 State of The World’s Children it was estimated that 7000 fewer girls than expected are born everyday in India . In August 2006 around 50 female foetuses were discovered in a well in Patiala , Punjab , the state with the lowest sex ratio in the country[2]. In the same month in Aligarh , Uttar Pradesh, a dozen embryo were found dumped in a pond[3]. These are just a couple of recent examples of an endemic social practice.  

Fertility is declining more rapidly in urban and educated families than in rural areas, yet nevertheless the preference for male children in this group remains strong. For these families, modern medical technologies are within easy reach. Worryingly, the trend is actually increasing; the most recent Indian Government census showed that in India as a whole sex-selective abortion is becoming more common. 

In 1991, the sex ratio of girls to boys (0-6 yrs) was 945:1000. Ten years on, the ratio stood at 927:1000. 

Given the availability and reduced cost of scanning technology, sex selective abortion has become increasingly common in urban areas, and worryingly is now rapidly spreading to rural areas also.  

In Delhi there are 868 girls for every 1000 boys. In Punjab , there are even fewer - only 798 girls for every 1000 boys[4], which means that there are only 4 girls for every 5 boys.  As women undertake a broad range of paid and unpaid labour, the lives of those girl children who survive are negatively impacted upon by the problems which a shortage of women causes, including an increase in: workload; violence; likelihood of being unofficially bound to multiple men; sexual exploitation and polyandrous marriages. 

A very worrying and direct implication of this practice is that women are repeatedly undergoing abortions, and needlessly are sometimes forced to seek highly dangerous backstreet abortions, with little or no medical supervision. The toll this practice takes on a woman's physical and mental health must not be forgotten in discussion on this issue. 

Legal History of SSA

The importance of legislating against sex determination testing taken with a view to abort foetuses found to be female was first noted in the 1970s. Despite much activism in Maharasthra which led to a law to prevent sex determination there in 1988, it was not until September 1994 that the Indian Parliament enacted the PNDT Act (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.)  

This act was amended in 2003 to make it more comprehensive in light of new fertility technologies which facilitate the selection of the sex of a foetus even before conception. The new act was named the PC & PNDT Act (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994. This act provides for the following:  

• Prohibition of sex selection, before and after conception

• Regulation of prenatal diagnostic techniques (e.g. amniocentesis and ultrasonography) for detection of genetic abnormalities, by restricting their use to registered institutions. The Act allows the use of these techniques only at a registered place for a specified purpose and by a qualified person, registered for this purpose.

• Prevention of misuse of such techniques for sex selection before of after conception.

• Prohibition of advertisement of any technique for sex selection as well as sex determination.

• Prohibition on sale of ultrasound machines to persons not registered under this Act.

• Punishment for violations of the Act.”[5]

• Sex-determination testing has been legislated against in such a manner because of the frequency with which its misuse leads to Sex Selective Abortion (SSA). Therefore from a legal point of view, this PC & PNDT Act has to be viewed in relation to the legislation which exists governing abortion; the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. What is important to realize is that Indian women have not been granted the absolute ‘right to abortion’ as such; only the right to abort if:[6]  

• Continuing the pregnancy poses risk to the life of the pregnant woman or grave injury to her mental and physical health

• There is substantial risk that if the child is born, would suffer from serious physical or mental abnormalities which cause serious handicap

• The pregnancy is caused by rape

• The pregnancy is a result of failure of any contraceptive device in the case of married women only

• Nowhere in law is sex-selection given as a valid reason to terminate a pregnancy.

Women’s rights organizations are faced with the very difficult position of advocating both for the rights of women to self-determination and control over their bodies and the need to address the sex ratio. Restrictive abortion laws are necessary to help improve the sex ratio and yet are also very harmful by forcing abortion underground which endangers the lives of millions of women each year.

The Longer Fight...

However, this issue of sex selection must not be recast in terms of the abortion debate; as the problem is that the desire to abort on the grounds of sex is generated socially. Therefore the pressure to abort female foetuses and put the life and health of millions of women in jeopardy is what needs to be addressed. When a child is planned and desired; that a woman feels that there is little alternative but to abort because the foetus she is carrying is a female, is heartbreaking. That she might be forced to do it against her will is unthinkable. Many women are forced to abort by their families, who demand that they produce a male heir.

SSA is primarily an issue of gender inequality.

Women are undervalued from womb to tomb in India; and this is the real underlying problem. 

SSA is perpetuated by the practice of dowry and the valuation of women as lesser than man in all areas of life; from inheritance traditions, to religious rituals which insist that only men can perform them, to the priority of their social existence as wives and daughters above all else. SSA is the very first crime committed against females on their long journey through a life marked by gender inequality.

The law needs enforcement; people will continue practicing SSA so long as they think they can escape without penalty. People convicted under the PC & PNPDT Act (2004) are subject to up to 3 years imprisonment and a fine of 10, 000 Rs. However arguably these penalties are not so severe as to act as a deterrent; and because the law is not properly enforced, its power is lacking.

We have to put pressure on members of the public and enforcement agencies to make this law work; every individual can make a difference by changing their attitude and convincing those around them that SSA is wrong. 

[1]  See Dr Shirish S. Sheth's comments on the issue in "Missing females births in India' The Lancet 2006; 367:185-6

[2] The Hindu 03/09/2006

[3] The Hindu 22/08/2006

[4] 2001 Census, published in Annual Report on implementation of the pre-conception and pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act. 2005. PNDT Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India , New Delhi .

[5] Annual Report on implementation of the pre-conception and pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act. 2005. PNDT Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India , New Delhi . Page 9. 

[6] Section 3 MTPA 1971