In this article, you will read an Essay on Female Foeticide for Students and Children in 1500 words. Also about its history, causes, cultural significance, and law for this.
Introduction (Essay on Female Foeticide)
Female foeticide in India is the abortion of a female foetus outside of legal means. The frequency of female foeticide killing in India is increasing day by day. The natural sex ratio is between 103 and 107, and a higher number shows female foeticide.
According to the Census of India, the sex ratio of 0 to 6-year-olds in India increased to 102.4 per 100 women in 1961, 104.2 in 1980, 104.5 in 2001 and 108.5 in 2011.
The sex ratio of children is within the natural range of all the eastern and southern states of India, but only slightly higher in some western and especially northwestern states of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir (118, 120 and 116, respectively).
According to the 2011 Western Census, the sex ratio of child sex in Maharashtra and Rajasthan is at 113, Gujarat at 112, and Uttar Pradesh at 111.
Census data of India shows that there is a positive relationship between the exceptional sex ratio and functional socio-economic status and literacy. It may be linked to the practice of dowry in India, where dowry kills when a girl lives under financial burden.
According to 1991, 2001 and 2011 census, the sex ratio is higher in urban India, while female foeticide is higher in urban India. Similarly, the sex ratios of over 115 girls per 100 girls are found in areas where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians are more likely.
There is a “normal” child sex ratio of 104 to 106 boys per 100 girls in areas where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians are more likely. These data refute any hypothesis that suggests that sexual selection is an ancient practice that occurs among the illiterate, poor, or particular religions of Indian society.
There is debate whether these high sex ratios are solely because of female foeticide or because natural causes explain some higher ratios. The Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) was passed by the Government of India in 1994 to prohibit and punish preterm sex tests and female foetus.
It is illegal for anyone to determine or disclose the sex of the foetus in India. However, there are concerns that the PCPNDT law authorities are not adequately enforcing it.
High gender ratio implications
The school of scholars suggests that the sex ratio of boys’ sex with girls outside the normal 105-107 range is essentially a sex-selective abortion. These scholars claim that the sex ratio at birth and the sex ratio at birth are very stable in the human population.
Significant deviations in the standard range-to-sex rate can only be explained by manipulation, i.e. sex-selective abortion. In a widely cited article, Amartya Sen compared the birth sex ratio in Europe (106) and the United States (105) with that of people in Asia (107+).
It argued that East Asia, West Asia, and South Asia might have a higher sex ratio may be because of excessive female deaths. Sen’s research suggests that women and men have a better survival rate if men and women receive the same nutrition and medicine and good health care, and that genetically fragile men have sex.
Census claims that the number of ‘missing women’ from extra women surviving in Asia was like men in Europe and the United States. According to Sen, the high birth-sex ratio for decades represents an 11% drop in females in Asia, or over 100 million women missing from India’s 3 billion populations.
Reasons for female foeticide
Various theories have been proposed as reasons for sex-selective abortions. Some researchers favour culture, and some parties dislike access to gender-biased resources. Natural causes may also explain some unusual sexual proportions. Klassen and Wink suggest that high sex ratios in India and China are mainly the result of sex-selective abortions.
Cultural significance
The school of scholars suggests that female foetus can be traced through history and cultural background. Generally, male babies are preferred because they provide humanitarian labour and success to the family lineage.
The abortion of a female foetus is widespread in areas where cultural norms are emphasised on males for various social and economic reasons. They often prefer the son as an “asset” because he can earn and nurture a family. A daughter is a “liability” because she marries another family and therefore does not financially support her parents.
Female foeticide is a different form of prevention or postpartum healthcare in some households. In some cultures, sons are expected to look after parents in their old age. These factors are complicated by the impact of diseases on the sex ratio of children, where infectious and non-infectious diseases affect men and women differently.
Dowry system:
Although the dowry system is legally abolished with the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the prevalence of corruption and corruption in supervised families continues throughout India. Dowry means paying from the bride’s family to the groom’s family at the time of the wedding.
Theoretically, selecting a partner increases the benefit of the marriage and has equal returns for both participants. It means that Pareto is correct and balanced when no one chooses to get along well with another partner or decide not to marry.
However, if both partners do not share the same returns, there must be a transfer of funds between them to reach efficiency. In Indian society, economic growth has allowed men to work and earn income in “productive” jobs, but most women do not tolerate these opportunities.
Therefore, women and their families must compete for men and pay the dowry for the lack of productive inputs that bring them into marriage. The dowry trend in India has been growing over the past six decades. Between 1921 and 1981 there was an increase of 15 percent. This partnership is of great importance to women so they can reap the benefits so they can benefit.
The power hierarchies and financial obligations created by this system help support actions such as female foeticide and high son preference. Technological advances leading to sex-selective abortions reduce the cost of discrimination, and many consider it better to pay “now 500 rupees (abortion)” instead of 50,000 (dowry).
Also, dowry costs are beyond marriage. The bride’s family will bear the burden of high prices for the groom.
India’s weak social security system:
Another reason for this male preference is the financial benefits of having a son and the cost of becoming a daughter. In India, there is a minimal social security system, so parents look to their sons to look after and care for their future in old age. Daughters are responsible because they have to move to another family after they are married and cannot look after their parents.
Also, they do not finance family wealth and are expensive because of the dowry system. In India, people view men’s work as “productive” and contribute to the family, but this concept is lacking in the social perception of female labour. They also relate it to men getting high-paying jobs in India and financing their families.
Women need to increase access to education and financial resources to reach lucrative employment levels and change public perception of daughters’ financial responsibilities. With this cost and benefit analysis, many families have concluded that women’s lives should be prioritised over the lives of male children to ensure their financial future.
The traditional social security system in India is family-centred, with three generations of joint families living together and looking after each other.
Law and Governance:
India passed its first abortion-related legislation, known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, which legalised abortion in most states, but included legal reasons for abortion, medical risks, and rape for the mother. The law also established doctors who could legally provide preventive procedures and facilities, but females were not afraid of technological advances.
With claims of the availability of sex screening technologies in India and its abuse in urban India in the 1980s, the Government of India passed the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT) in 1994.
They revised this law in the earlier sense and Prevention and Prevention of Prenatal Sex Screening and Female Fetal Injury in the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Abuse) (PCPNDT) Act 2004. However, there are concerns that there has been no implementation of the PCPNDT law authorities.
The impact of Indian laws on female foeticide and its implementation is unclear. In 2009, the Government of India asked the United Nations Population Fund and the National Human Rights Commission of India to assess the impact of the law.
The Public Health Foundation of India, in its 2010 report, noted that in some parts of India there is a lack of awareness of the law, the inaccurate role of authorities, and the role of some clinics in prenatal care services.
Some doctors disobeyed the law. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India is targeting education and media advertising to reach out to clinics and medical professionals to raise awareness. At its meetings and conferences, the Indian Medical Association has made efforts to prevent prenatal gender selection by giving Beti Bachao (Save the Daughter) to its members.
More recently, a study by Nandi and Deolikar (2013) stated that the 1994 PNDT Act might be. Stopping 106,000 female foetuses in a decade had minor effect.
According to a 2007 study by McPherson, the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT Act) is well-publicised by non-governmental organisations and the government. Many advertisements portray abortion as violent, and the fear of abortion taking place in the population.
The ads focus on religious insults related to abortion. Macpherson said the media campaign was ineffective because some viewed it as an attack on his character, and many shut down rather than openly discuss the issue. This emphasis on morality, McPherson claims, increased the fear and shame associated with all abortions, leading to the rise of unsafe abortion in India.
The Government of India, in its 2011 report, welled educate all stakeholders about its MTP and PCPNDT laws. The government is supporting the implementation of programs and programs that seek to reduce gender selection, including a media campaign to address the social causes of sexual selection.
Given the country’s child sex ratio and the 2003 Supreme Court directive, the Ministry has established a National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) to implement legislation prohibiting state governments from using gender confirmation technology.
Director (PNDT) Dr Ratan Chand has been appointed as the convenor of NIMC. Dr NIMC has conducted raids in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and some districts of Gujarat under the guidance of Ratan Chand.
In April, it attacked three clinics in Delhi. In its report to the Secretary-General of the respective States, the Committee found that the authority failed to monitor or oversee the registered clinics.
