Sex-selective abortion is the termination of a pregnancy because of the sex of the foetus. In India the practice is almost entirely directed at female foetuses, and it is the principal proximate cause of the decline in the child sex ratio recorded from the 1980s onwards. Sociologically it is not a medical phenomenon but a technological expression of an older preference, and it displaces rather than replaces earlier forms of discrimination against daughters.
Where it comes from
The practice sits at the meeting of two forces. The first is son preference — sustained by patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence, which make sons the carriers of the line and daughters members of another household after marriage; by dowry and marriage expenses, which turn a daughter into an anticipated cost; and by ritual obligations that only a son is held to discharge. Leela Dube traced how these structures define the daughter as a temporary member, given away rather than retained. The second is the small-family norm. As desired family size falls, couples who once achieved a son through repeated births compress the same preference into fewer pregnancies, and prenatal diagnostic technology allows the composition of those pregnancies to be chosen. This is why the sharpest ratio declines have appeared in prosperous, educated, low-fertility districts rather than the poorest ones — evidence that the driver is culture combined with capacity, not deprivation.
Points of debate
The legal response is the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, which prohibits disclosure of foetal sex and regulates diagnostic centres. Its limits are widely noted: enforcement depends on documentary compliance by the very clinics being regulated, transactions leave no willing complainant, and demand simply relocates to more discreet or distant providers. Feminists have also warned that anti-selection campaigns can slide into restricting women's access to legitimate abortion, and that punitive framing tends to blame mothers who are often themselves under family pressure.
For the UPSC answer
Present sex-selective abortion as son preference plus small-family norm plus available technology, and use that formula to explain why richer districts often show worse ratios. Note the PCPNDT Act, then argue that law addresses the technique while the demand lies in kinship structure — so inheritance rights, women's employment and post-marital residence patterns are the real levers.
References & further reading
- Dube, L. (2001). Anthropological Explorations in Gender. New Delhi: Sage.
- Patel, T. (ed.) (2007). Sex-Selective Abortion in India. New Delhi: Sage.
- Sen, A. (1990). More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing. New York Review of Books.