DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP75
Authors: Arun Kumar Sharma
Abstract: This paper focuses on the extent and causes of female feticide in India and makes some suggestions for eliminating the crime. Two studies are presented. The first study was conducted in a peri urban area of Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh state in India. Five villages in the catchment of Chaubepur Primary Health Center (PHC) were selected in which all married women who had been pregnant once were interviewed with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule. In all, 983 women were interviewed. The second study was conducted among the undergraduate students of IIT Kanpur who had already done a basic course in social sciences. It was found that in the sample as many as 15 percent women went for sex selective abortion. The practice was found more among the upper classes and seems to be caused by the difficulties in raising a girl child. The second study suggests that there is a need for: (a) spreading education/awareness/knowledge; (b) women empowerment or government action/policies for women empowerment; (c) changing people’s outlook/society/gender bias; (d) removing the dowry system; and (e) creating gender equality. The success in fighting the crime and in achieving a balanced juvenile sex ratio will depend more on these social interventions than on law. Fighting gender bias requires a social revolution. In absence of a collective will and a deep rooted social realization to fight it and in absence of a change in social structure, from legal approach alone the problem cannot be solved.
Keywords: Demographic transition; Sex determination; PCPDNT; Gender norms; Dowry; Awareness; Empowerment.
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