page_title: Sex-selective abortion
section_title: India
hierarchical_section_title: Sex-selective abortion / Asia / India
caption_attribution_description: English: The chart shows male to female sex ratio for India based on its Census data, along with historical timeline of technology for fetal sex determination ultrasonography. Data sources: 1. 1941 through 2001 data is from Page 3, Chapter 6, "Sex Composition of the Population", Census of India 2001, Series 1, Paper 1 of 2001 (Publisher: Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India). Web version: http://censusindia.gov.in/Data_Products/Library/Provisional_Population_Total_link/PDF_Links/chapter6.pdf 2. Sex ratio for 2011 is from Final Population Totals, "Sex Composition of the Population", Census of India 2011 (Publisher: Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India). Web version: http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/ 3. Historical timeline for ultrasonography in prenatal, obstetrics and gynecology is from: (a) Joseph Woo, A short History of the development of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology; (b) "Looking at the Unborn: Historical Aspects of Obstetric Ultrasound" - Witness seminar transcript. Wellcome Witness to Twentieth Centurty Medicine. E M Tansey, D A Christie (editors), January 2000; (c) Roger Freeman et al. (2012), Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring, 4th Edition, ISBN 978-1451116632, Chapter 1, pages 2-4. Français&#160;: Le graphique montre ratio homme de sexe féminin pour l'Inde sur la base de ses données de recensement, ainsi que la chronologie historique de la technologie pour la détermination du sexe du fœtus échographie.
context_page_description: Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based upon the predicted sex of the infant. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common where male children are valued over female children, especially in parts of East Asia and South Asia, as well as in the Caucasus, Western Balkans, and to a lesser extent North America.
  Sex selective abortion was first documented in 1975, and became commonplace by the late 1980s in South Korea and China and around the same time or slightly later in India.
  Sex-selective abortion affects the human sex ratio—the relative number of males to females in a given age group, with China and India, the two most populous countries of the world, having unbalanced gender ratios. Studies and reports focusing on sex-selective abortion are predominantly statistical; they assume that birth sex ratio—the overall ratio of boys and girls at birth—for a regional population is an indicator of sex-selective abortion. This assumption has been questioned by some scholars.
  According to demographic scholarship, the expected birth sex ratio range is 103 to 107 males to 100 females at birth.
context_section_description: India's 2001 census revealed a national 0–6 age child sex ratio of 108, which increased to 109 according to 2011 census (927 girls per 1000 boys and 919 girls per 1000 boys respectively, compared to expected normal ratio of 943 girls per 1000 boys). The national average masks the variations in regional numbers according to 2011 census—Haryana's ratio was 120, Punjab's ratio was 118, Jammu & Kashmir was 116, and Gujarat's ratio was 111. The 2011 Census found eastern states of India had birth sex ratios between 103 and 104, lower than normal. In contrast to decadal nationwide census data, small non-random sample surveys report higher child sex ratios in India.
  The child sex ratio in India shows a regional pattern. India's 2011 census found that all eastern and southern states of India had a child sex ratio between 103 and 107, typically considered as the “natural ratio.” The highest sex ratios were observed in India's northern and northwestern states – Haryana (120), Punjab (118) and Jammu & Kashmir (116). The western states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan 2011 census found a child sex ratio of 113, Gujarat at 112 and Uttar Pradesh at 111.
  The Indian census data suggests there is a positive correlation between abnormal sex ratio and better socio-economic status and literacy. Urban India has higher child sex ratio than rural India according to 1991, 2001 and 2011 Census data, implying higher prevalence of sex selective abortion in urban India. Similarly, child sex ratio greater than 115 boys per 100 girls is found in regions where the predominant majority is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian; furthermore "normal" child sex ratio of 104 to 106 boys per 100 girls are also found in regions where the predominant majority is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. These data contradict any hypotheses that may suggest that sex selection is an archaic practice which takes place among uneducated, poor sections or particular religion of the Indian society.
  Rutherford and Roy, in their 2003 paper, suggest that techniques for determining sex prenatally that were pioneered in the 1970s, gained popularity in India. These techniques, claim Rutherford and Roy, became broadly available in 17 of 29 Indian states by the early 2000s. Such prenatal sex determination techniques, claim Sudha and Rajan in a 1999 report, where available, favored male births.
  Arnold, Kishor, and Roy, in their 2002 paper, too hypothesize that modern fetal sex screening techniques have skewed child sex ratios in India. Ganatra et al., in their 2000 paper, use a small survey sample to estimate that ​¹⁄₆ of reported abortions followed a sex determination test.
  Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel and Daniel Rosenblum, in their 2012 paper, find that despite numerous publications and studies, there is limited formal evidence on the effects of the continued spread of ultrasound technology on missing women in India. They conclude, contrary to common belief, that the recent rapid spread of ultrasound in India, from the 1990s through 2000s, did not cause a concomitant rise in sex-selection and prenatal female abortion.
  The Indian government and various advocacy groups have continued the debate and discussion about ways to prevent sex selection. The immorality of prenatal sex selection has been questioned, with some arguments in favor of prenatal discrimination as more humane than postnatal discrimination by a family that does not want a female child. Others question whether the morality of sex selective abortion is any different over morality of abortion when there is no risk to the mother nor to the fetus, and abortion is used as a means to end an unwanted pregnancy.
  India passed its first abortion-related law, the so-called Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, making abortion legal in most states, but specified legally acceptable reasons for abortion such as medical risk to mother and rape. The law also established physicians who can legally provide the procedure and the facilities where abortions can be performed, but did not anticipate sex selective abortion based on technology advance
caption: The male to female sex ratio for India, based on its official census data from 1941 through to 2011. The data suggests the existence of high sex ratios before and after the arrival of ultrasound-based prenatal care and sex screening technologies in India.
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