Female Foeticide

International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences Vol 1 Issue 1 January 2006

Female Foeticide and Infanticide in India: An Analysis of Crimes against Girl Children
Sneh Lata Tandon1 and Renu Sharma2
University of Delhi, Delhi, India Abstract Sex selective abortions and increase in the number of female infanticide cases have become a significant social phenomenon in several parts of India. It transcends all castes, class and communities and even the North South dichotomy. The girl children become target of attack even before they are born. Numerous scholars have observed that the latest advances in modern medical sciences – the tests like Amniocentesis and Ultra-sonography which were originally designed for detection of congenital abnormalities of the foetus, are being misused for knowing the sex of the foetus with the intention of aborting it if it happens to be that of a female. The worst situation is when these abortions are carried out well beyond the safe period of 12 weeks endangering the women’s life. This paper theoretically analyses the magnitude of the incidence of female foeticide and infanticide in India. __________________________________________________________________ Keywords: Foeticide; Infanticide; Ultra-sonography; sex selective abortion; crimes against girl children __________________________________________________________________ Female Foeticide Incidence and Magnitude Sex selective abortions cases have become a significant social phenomenon in several parts of India. It transcends all castes, class and communities and even the North South dichotomy. The girl children become target of attack even before they are born. Diaz, (1988) states that in a well-known Abortion Centre in Mumbai, after undertaking the sex determination tests, out of the 15,914 abortions performed during 1984-85 almost 100 per cent were those of girl foetuses. Similarly, a survey report of women’s centre in Mumbai found that out of 8,000 foetuses aborted in six city

References: Bandewar, S. (2003). Abortion Services and Providers’ Perceptions: Gender Dimensions. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXVIII No.21 May 24-30, 2003, pp. 2075-2081. Chunkath, S.R., and V.B. Athreya (1997). Female Infanticide in Tamil Nadu: some Evidence. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXII (17), WS pp. 22-29. Desai, N. (1988). Born to die. The Indian Post, 7th October, 1988, Bombay. Diaz, A.A. (1988). Amniocentesis and Female Foeticide. Bulletin of the Indian Federation of Medical Guild, July 56. Gangrade, K.D. (1988). Sex Determination – A Critique. Journal of Social Change, Vol. 18 No. 3, Pp. 63-70. George, S., A. Rajaratnam and B.D. Miller (1991). Female Infanticide in Rural South India. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXVII, No. 22, pp. 1153-1156. Giriraj, R. (2004). Changing Attitude to Female Infanticide in Salem. Journal Social Welfare, Vol. 50, No. 11 February 2004 pp.13-14 & 34-35. Kulkarni, S. (1986). Pre-natal Sex Determination Tests and Female Foeticide in Bombay City. The Foundation for Research in Community Health, Bombay. Kolloor, T.M. (1990). Female Infanticide: A psychological analysis. Grass Roots Action, special issue on Girl Child, 3 April 1990. Krishna Kumar, A. (1992). Female Infanticide Beyond Symptoms: Will the government measures help? Frontline, December 4, 1992. Patel, V. (1994). Indian Women’s struggle to survive: Campaign against femicide. In: UNICEF, The Child and The Law, New Delhi; UNICEF 1994. pp. 60-61. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences Vol 1 Issue 1 January 2006 Premi, M. K. and S. Raju (1996). Imbalance of Child Sex Ratio in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Unpublished report of the study sponsored by Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India. New Delhi; Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Sen, A.K. (1989). Gender and Co-operative Conflicts. In: Irene Tinker (ed.) Women and World Development, New York; Oxford University Press Pp. 123149. Srinivasan, V. (1992). Death for female: Foeticide and infanticide in Salem District. Front Line, 9 October 1992. Srivastava, S.P. (2001). The Perils of Pre-Birth Murder – A Sociological Analysis of Female Foeticide. Journal of Social Welfare, Vol.47, No. 10 January 2001. pp. 7-12. Kapur, P.J. (1995).Girl Child Abuse: Violation of her Human Rights. Social Change, Vol. 25 No. 2-3, June-Sept. 1995, Pp. 3-18. Tandon, S. L. (1999). Penal Sanctions on Violence Against Women: An Appraisal, In: Centre for Social Research, Violence Against Women in Delhi: Determinants and Remedies, New Delhi; Centre for Social Research pp. 46-57. Thilagaraj, R. and Sasirekha S (2002). Female Infanticide in the State of Tamil Nadu, In: A.K. Guru and Pankaj Shrivastava (eds). Recent Advances in Forensic Biology, Anmol Publications, New Delhi. Pp. 246-257.