Are we, as a country, becoming more sensitive to the issue of female foeticide and sex selection practices? Last week, a doctor and a lab technician were sentenced to two years of imprisonment — hailed as the first conviction under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 (PNDT Act).

Earlier this year, in a ceremony conducted in Gujarat’s Kudasan village, 50 couples from Gujarat’s influential Patel community pledged that they would not resort to female foeticide. In Jhunjhunu, when they once asked,”Why water a plant in the neighbour’s garden?”, they now say that “if there is one girl in the house, the father is like a king”. In February, among the resolutions that were passed at the World Sikh Heritage meet in Fatehgarh Sahib town, there was one that condemned female foeticide and enjoined every Sikh to shun such evil practices. Many ultrasound clinics in Batinda now have notices announcing that they do not conduct sex-determination tests. In Satara, there are groups now conducting sting operations on radiologists and doctors practicing sex selections techniques, and the Punjab health department offers Rs 5,000 to any pregnant woman willing to act as a decoy and expose clinics where sex determination tests are done.

Thirty years after a study conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, first revealed that Indian couples were strongly motivated to seek medical interventions that ensure male progeny, are we seeing indications of a course correction? Some demographers have argued that the decline in the female-male sex ratio will stabilise at some point as girl children become more scarce and begin to get more valued within society. Is the country actually moving towards such a tipping point?

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