India Census 2011 has been completed recently, in Feb 2011. Among the significant highlights came the facts that. The sex ratio has been tagged at 940. It means that for every 1000 men, there are 940 women.The child sex ratio has been continuously reducing since the 1961 i.e. for the last 50 years.

Female foeticide is the selective abortion/elimination of the girl child in the womb itself, done deliberately by the mother, after the detection of the child’s gender through medical means. This is usually done under familial pressure from the husband or the in-laws or even the woman’s parents. In India, female foeticide – the sex-selective abortion of girls – has led to an alarming “gender gap” in the country’s population. It is a tragedy that every year, half a million girl children are being killed and prevented from being born.

If this phenomenon continues, then a stage will reach when it would difficult to make up for the missing girls. Society needs to recognize this discrimination. Girls have right to live just as boys do. If the stringent measures are not taken up it will lead to further imbalance in sex- ratio and will have long-term impact on demographic imbalance in India.This disparity may prove critical for the country’s development in political, economic and emotional spheres.
The death of females leads to other complications like female trafficking, kidnappings and in increase in assault and rape against women.

The root cause for female foeticide lies within the cultural norms as well as the socio-economic policies of the country where this practice prevails.
Today, some of the key reasons that exist for the preference of a male child are as follows:

The tradition of paying dowry at the time of a daughter’s marriage is alive and kicking. This amount can be so huge that many parents will go to extreme lengths to avoid having a daughter in the first place.
A son is seen as someone who can earn and care for his parents in their later years, while a daughter will get married and go away.
A son can carry on the family name, while a daughter becomes part of her husband’s family. Many families consider it a status symbol to have a son, and a point of shame to have a daughter.Illiteracy, poverty and the tag of ‘burden’ that is assigned to a girl child, makes the desire for a male child even stronger.

Of the numerous steps taken to curb the matter, the prominent ones are:
1.Cancellation/permanent termination of the doctor’s license who partakes in fulfilling a client’s demand to do away with her girl child.
2.Heavy penalty imposed on companies like GE, that specialize in marketing medical equipments used for illegal sex determination and abortion in unlicensed clinics and hospitals.
3.High fines and judicial action against ‘parents’ who knowingly try to kill their unborn baby.
4.Widespread campaigns and seminars for young adults and potential parents to enlighten them about the ill effects of female feticide. Ignorance is one of the major causes for the increase in the selective sex abortion cases. Spreading awareness can go a long way in saving our future sisters, mothers, girlfriends and wives.