What it is necessary to stop female foeticide?
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hai
Female feticide is an alarmingly common practice in India, as evidenced by the most recent Indian national census in 2011 indicating only 914 females for every 1000 males in the zero to six years age range [1]. The root cause of female feticide, a form of structural violence against women, is multifaceted and complex. As the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare states in its 2006 annual report, “the social, cultural and religious fibre of India is predominantly patriarchal, comprehensively contributing to the secondary status of women” [2]. The high rates of female feticide reflect this secondary status. A lower earning capacity, the patrilineal social structure dictating inheritance, and the widespread practice of dowry contribute to the diminished position of women [2]. Improvement in the socioeconomic conditions in India has done little to raise the status of women. Recent evidence reveals that sex selection remains common among the affluent and educated in India [3].
In an attempt to curb female feticide, the Indian Government enacted the Pre–Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act of 1994, which prohibits sex selection and regulates prenatal diagnostic techniques to prevent their misuse. To this end, the government established a bureaucracy controlling the sale and regulating the use of ultrasound machines, a key diagnostic modality used to facilitate sex–selective abortions. Following the initial implementation of the PNDT Act, a further decline in the 2001 Indian national census sex ratio prompted the passage of an amendment, the Pre–Conception and Pre–Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act of 2003, which addressed pre–conception sex determination and strengthened enforcement of the PNDT Act.
The continual decline in the sex ratio with each national census since the inception of the PNDT Act calls into question its effectiveness. Census data shows that the sex ratio declined from 945 females for every 1000 males in the zero to six years of age range in 1991 to 927 females for every 1000 males in 2001 to 914 females for every 1000 males in 2011 [1,2]. A well–intentioned legal tool based on the principle of deterrence, the PCPNDT Act also suffers from weak implementation [4]. In its 2010 review of the PCPNDT Act, the Public Health Foundation of India acknowledges, “Data till 2006 reveal that as many as 22 of the 35 states in India had not reported a single violation of the Act since it came into force” [4].
It is difficult to ascertain whether the failure of the Act to substantially reduce female feticide is due to ineffectiveness or improper implementation. However, the unintended consequence of the PCPNDT Act is clear. To prevent misuse, the Act created a system wherein all individuals and institutions must register under the Act to legally purchase an ultrasound, regardless of whether the intended use involves prenatal diagnostics. Furthermore, all ultrasound practitioners, whether those using ultrasound for echocardiography or those using ultrasound for placement of central vascular access, are mandated to register with the Act. The system has resulted in onerous, time–consuming registration paperwork that discourages medical professionals outside of radiology from using ultrasound. By creating these bureaucratic barriers to ultrasound use unrelated to prenatal diagnostics, the Act restricts the...
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