Female Foeticide and Gender Inequality in India: Issue of Attention

In spite of a high rate of growth and ample government initiatives to maintain equality in case of gender , the gap between genders still exist in India. In India, based on their sex, gender variation is usually prescribed as the injustice or discrimination against women. Gender inequality limits women’s participation in various fields and it also hampers the life of the future generation also. Women are confronted with many hurdles in everywhere. Female foeticide is one of the worst types of discrimination against females where a female is refused her most essential and fundamental right, i.e. the right to live life. In India, female foeticide means outside of valid law, the abortion of a female foetus. In India, the recurrence of female foeticide is expanding day by day. In present day, it seems that the sex determination test leading to the practice of female foeticide overlooked and uncomplicated than before. Since ancient days, killing of female foetus is an extraordinary feature under the rule of patriarchy in Indian society. According to census report, the child sex ratio has decreased from 945 girls (0-6 years) per 1000 boys (0-6 years) in 1991 it is 927 girls per 1000 boys in 2001 to 919 girls per 1000 boys in 2011. The picture of female foeticide in North-East India is quite good as compared to the other states of India. As per the census 2011, Arunachal Pradesh has the highest child ratio among the Indian states i.e. 972 while Haryana has the lowest child sex ratio i.e. 834 per thousand males. According to decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0 to 6 age group in India has risen from 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961, to 104.2 in 1980, to 107.5 in 2001, to 108.9 in 2011. On this background, here, an attempt has been made to examine the issue of female foeticide as an indicator of gender inequality in India. This paper is mostly descriptive in nature entirely based on secondary data.