Technology and its Impact on Child Sex Ratio in India

As result of technological advancement, rapid decline in child sex ratio (number of female per 1000 male in the age of 0-6 years) recorded in India. In recent decades, the techniques of prenatal diagnosis are used in India to sex selective abortions for eliminating female babies. At present, amniocentesis, chronic villi biopsy (CVB) and ultrasonography are the three main pre-natal diagnostic tests that are being used to determine the sex of a fetus. Amniocentesis is meant to be used in high-risk pregnancies, in women over 35 years. CVB is meant to diagnose inherited diseases like thalassaemia, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Ultrasonography is the most commonly used technique. It is non-invasive and can identify up to 50 per cent of abnormalities related to the central nervous system of the fetus. But, it has been extensively used to identify the sex of the abort female fetus and reported both in the international media as well as in scientific publications since the 1990s. The recent Census of India 2011 data shows that the ratio of girls to boys below the age of 6 years continues to decline at an alarming rate (914). Since its publication, this topic has again received international attention. The objective of this article is to examine the impact of prenatal technology on female feticide there by skewed child sex ratio in and its consequences in India based on census data and other published sources. It has been found that the practice of female feticide is wide spread throughout India irrespective of region, religion, caste, class and literacy status, but magnitude of practice vary. The sudden fall in the number of girls in the youngest age group is believed to be proof of the increased incidence of sex-selective abortions or female feticide. Most of these abortions are the result of the misuse of sex determination technologies such as ultrasound scanning and amniocentesis. Apart from, social pressures in India, and the presence of low-cost technologies like ultrasound, have led to sex-based abortion of female fetuses, and an increasingly smaller number of girls born every year. In this article an attempt is made to discuss briefly the possible causes, consequences, and solutions.