Female foeticide

Female foeticide is the act of aborting a foetus because it is female. The frequency of female foeticide is indirectly estimated from the observed high birth sex ratio, that is the ratio of boys to girls at birth. The natural ratio is assumed to be between 103 to 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,[1] to 104.1 in 1981, to 107.8 in 2001, to 108.8 in 2011.[2] 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 northwesternstates such as Punjab, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir (120, 118 and 116, as of 2011, respectively).[3] High birth sex ratio and implied female foeticide is an issue that is not unique to India. Even higher sex ratios than in India have been reported for the last 20 years in China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and some Southeast European countries.[4] There is an on-going 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.[5]
The Indian government has passed Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) (PCPNDT) Act in 2004 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.[6]