According to the population Census of 2011, there are 940 females in India per 1000 males. India's sex ratio has always been skewed and one of the top reasons for this poor sex ratio is the female feoticide practiced here. Though, sex determination of a fetus is banned in India under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC&PNDT), 1994, it is still practiced openly in some parts of the country.
Recently, Girls Counts, which is a civil society initiative, decided to do its bit for preventing female feoticide in the country. It took the various e-commerce websites promoting the sex determination techniques through products and advertisements under its scanner by filing an online petition against them. The petition urges these ecommerce websites to refrain from advertising and selling gender based sex selection products and publications.
India is a country where having a boy is considered as asset, while on the other hand, having a girl is considered a debt. Though, this is not the case all around the country but this is what the majority of the Indian population believes in and follows. The topic of female feoticide has remained in public discourse for a long time in India, even the Supreme Court of India had instructed various websites including Microsoft, Yahoo and Google against promoting sex determination by any means of sponsorship or advertisements about sex determination services. In light of these instructions by the Supreme Court, any website still advertising or selling sex selection service is practicing contempt of Court.
According to the online petition filed on change.org by Girls Counts, Flipkart, Amazon.in, Junglee, Naaptol, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo should be held accountable for advertising and selling publications on sex selection online, promoting daughter dislike and making profits by breaching the law of the country.
In a country like India, which faces a loss of around six lakhs girls annually at the hands of sex recognition tests and service, such petitions and steps taken by civil societies could become a driving force towards a changed India with a healthier sex ratio.
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