Disclaimer: Sex determination is illegal and a punishable offence under the Pre-Conception (PC) and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1994
After having three daughters, my husband would get drunk and threaten me with divorce if I did not give him a son,” says Delhi-based Pushpa (name changed to protect privacy). Then one day, 11 years later, when the tests revealed a male foetus, she was relieved. The pressure from the family would ease.
This was 1993, a year before the Bill that would debar sex determination was passed. Parliament felt the need to formulate a law on this after it was consistently found that the medical screening for gender sometimes led people to commit female foeticide. In India’s 1991 population Census, the sex ratio stood at 929 females for every 1,000 males.
Drop in birth rate and sex ratio exposes Delhi’s patriarchal mindset
A little over 30 years on, the family’s internalised bias finds voice again, as one of Pushpa’s daughters gave birth to sons, and another to daughters.
