Femicide has been the system of dowry

The practice of Female Foeticide has been a centuries-old practice in rural India, so much so that it has become more predominant in the rural parts of India. However, the practice of femicide, in which an unborn baby is aborted or killed at birth simply because it is not a boy, is increasingly spreading from India’s poor and rural classes to affluent urban families. Selection of the sex of the foetus is a combination of personal choices, family issues, social, ethical, medical and even legal reasons. The Indian girl child is part of the society, which idolizes sons. This stems from the deep rooted ancient concept of having a son to carry on with the name and tradition of the family. Right from childhood, girls are made to accept the norms of patriarchal and male dominated society and they thus grow up accepting themselves to be inferior to boys. It is unfortunate that our society considers ‘male’ as the bread winner for the family, and therefore a more valuable asset than a girl child, who is looked upon as a liability in the family. Another key reason for femicide has been the system of dowry, prevalent in rural as well as now increasingly in urban India. Since most of the Indian population is at the poverty level, it is not possible to sustain a girl child because of the prevailing system.  The darker side of the problem arises from the want to get rid of the baby girl by the way of abortion. This follows from abortion been legalized by the government of India in 1971, leaving no room for debate about the necessity for the same. There can be no argument about the necessity to terminate pregnancy for medical reasons like congenital abnormalities and X-linked disorders. The fact that it has a genesis in the prenatal determination of sex is emphasized by the urban predominance due to availability of such facilities. Sex Determination Techniques which is a Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique is used for predicting the sex of an unborn offspring after conception preferably in the first four months of pregnancy. Such techniques are making inroads in the rural areas, whereby tilting the balance in favour of males by the way of female foeticide. The problem stands at a very thin dividing line between the medical reasons for termination of pregnancy and female foeticide based on antenatal sex determination. Selective abortions of the female foetuses in the 70s and 80s became common and led to severe disturbances in the male-female ratio over a period of time. India is one of the few countries where the overall sex ratio has been unfavourable to females. According to population survey reports, the sex ratio which was 972 females per 1000 males in 1901 was 933 females to 1000 males in 2001. The disparity in the ratio was more severe in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Chandigarh. The child sex ratio (CSR) in India has also been indicative of a negative trend towards girl child for decades now. The sharp decline in CSR from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 as brought forth by the 2001 census hit the public eye. Sociologists have speculated that such an imbalance would lead to greater incidence of rape, sharing of women within and outside wedlock, abductions, and in genital, in reducing women's freedom and mobility.

While there exists no quick and easy solution to the problem, it is possible to reduce gender inequality, which lies at the core offemicide. The first critical step is to challenge the patriarchal attitudes that applaud boys and undermine girls, and to create a culture that celebrates both the genders equally. More so, the medical fraternity can do a lot of service by preventing the practice of female foeticide.