There is a complicated relationship between abortion as such and the selective abortion of female foetuses. This dilemma is one with which the women’s movement in India has been grappling since the late 1980s. In my discussion of this dilemma, I would like to move away completely from Satyamev Jayate, the television programme, (on which a discussion has been initiated by Shohini Ghosh on kafila.org). In any case, there the...

-NYDailyNews.com Recent deaths of battered baby girls in different parts of India have jolted the nation's conscience. The United Nations ranks India as the deadliest place for female children. A few days back, 3-month-old Afreen died of cardiac arrest in a southern Indian hospital. She bore signs of beatings and cigarette burns, allegedly abused by her father. The 25-year-old father was apparently upset at having a daughter instead of a son, his wife...

-The Telegraph Indian women living in Canada are more likely to have male babies during their second or third deliveries, according to a new study that hints Indians may have carried the malaise of female foeticide to Canada. Researchers in Canada have found that the male-female ratio of babies born to women from India who already have children is significantly higher than the ratio observed among women from other countries, including Pakistan. Their...

The use of tracker technology to zero in on the misuse of diagnostic techniques for sex determination has evoked mixed reactions. ONE of the least discussed issues in the context of the data thrown up by Census 2011 is the worrisome decline in the child sex ratio (CSR) and the not-too-perfect implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, or PCPNDT Act. There is reason to...

-The Telegraph   India’s gains in literacy and prosperity are, contrary to expectations, driving an increase in the number of female foeticide cases with selective abortion after a first child highest in wealthy, educated households, says a study released today. The study by a team of Indian and Canadian researchers has shown a steep decline in the ratio of girls to boys in India when the first-born child is a girl. And...