Where killing girls “is not a sin”

“When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned- for what crime she was killed”.
(The Holy Quran:81:08)

Now a day we can hardly find a family with two daughters, in India. (particularly, in urban India). Female feticide is the root-cause of this declination. Sex-selection abortion is the practice of aborting a fetus after a determination (usually by ultrasound but also rarely by amniocentesis or another procedure) that the fetus is an undesired sex.

The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported in early 2006 that there may have been close to ten million female fetuses aborted in India over the past 20 years. That’s number is much more than that of Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust. This is extrapolated partly on the basis of reduction of female- to- male sex ratio from 945 per 1000 in 1991 to 927 per 1000 in 2001. the study also reported that sex selective abortion is more common among the wealthy and among educated women than among the poor and the uneducated. A study in India has indicated three factors of female deselection, which are the economic utility, sociocultural utility, and religious function.

It is also estimated that by 2020 there could be more than 25 million young “surplus male” in India.

Who is responsible?
In the early part of 1980s, when the technology for sex determination first came into being, since than sex selective abortion has unleashed a saga of horror. Nature intended the womb to be a safe space. Today doctors have made it the most unsafe space for the female child. Doctors must be held responsible for female feticide. Far from dissuading other from doing so, they have aggressively promoted the misuse of technology and legitimized feticide. Few years back doctors openly advertising with posters in suburban trains a “solution” to parental burdens; “pay Rs 500 now and avoid spending Rs five lakh later!”………. Referring the dowry for a girl’s marriage.

“Here arises the eternal question, “what’s the solution ?”

Prenatal sex-selection was outlawed in India in 1994 but the practice remains rampant. This PNDT Act is required to be deleted otherwise; it will be misused by those who are indulging in heinous practice of sex determination of fetus. There is a need to implement new Act that can make the sex selection practices a high-risk business, instead of a low risk business. Though social reform through law has its limits, but the penal code (IPC) has succeeded in rooting out evil like the practice of “SATI”.

To stop female feticides legal rights to the fetus (like Right to life and Legal personhood) could be added to the constitution. Such laws regard the fetus as a person whose legal status is on par with that of any other member of the species homo sapiens.

In 1983, the Eight Amendment of the constitution of Ireland, also known as the “pro-life Amendment,” was added to the constitution of the Republic of Ireland by popular referendum. It recognizes “ The Right to life of the unborn”.


The unborn victims of violence Act is a United State law, which defines violent assault, committed against pregnant women as being a crime against two persons; the women and the fetus she carries. This law was passed in 2004 after the murder of the then pregnant Laci Peterson and her fetus, Conner Peterson.

Though we cannot implement the law existing in Ireland but at lest we can amend a law, which is somewhat similar to “the Unborn Victims of Violence Act” of United State. If such right to the fetus could be added in our constitution then a intentional murder of fetus can be punishable under section 302 of the IPC and not under section 315 of the IPC. However the personhood to the fetus can be challenged under section 299 of the IPC.


Otherwise, Pregnancy profiling is another option, which is extremely important. It should be mandatory for every pregnant married woman to register her pregnancy within two to three week. A simple registration form should be available at every governmental office. If she void these norms and not register her pregnancy with in three week, under these circumstances legal action could be taken against the couple after the birth of the child.

So many questions can arise but on the other hand we don’t have many option to stop this evil practice. The legislature remained silent for long, believing that the enlightenment brought about by the spread of education and media of mass communication, would take care of such practices in the natural course of things. But, the social disease was so widespread and deep-rooted that, instead of taking care of itself the menace of female feticide spread its tentacles. Time is running out, we need to think fast.

· For the preparation of the article I have referred many articles published in different newspapers.