Disclaimer: Intercourse dedication is illegitimate and a punishable offence underneath the Pre-Conception (PC) and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Methods (PNDT) Act, 1994
After having three daughters, my husband would get drunk and threaten me with divorce if I didn’t give him a son,” says Delhi-based Pushpa (title modified to guard privateness). Then at some point, 11 years later, when the assessments revealed a male foetus, she was relieved. The strain from the household would ease.
This was 1993, a yr earlier than the Invoice that may debar intercourse dedication was handed. Parliament felt the necessity to formulate a legislation on this after it was persistently discovered that the medical screening for gender generally led individuals to commit feminine foeticide. In India’s 1991 inhabitants Census, the intercourse ratio stood at 929 females for each 1,000 males.
A bit over 30 years on, the household’s internalised bias finds voice once more, as considered one of Pushpa’s daughters gave beginning to sons, and one other to daughters.
“Daughters are fantastic, and everybody is aware of intercourse choice is improper,” she says, but in addition admits to wanting grandsons. Pushpa, who’s now 61, has labored at a creche in Delhi for 34 years, so she has seen a number of generations of fogeys. She notes a change: “{Couples} don’t speak about preferring a son overtly like they used to, however they nonetheless do, behind closed doorways.”
Behind closed doorways, lakhs of ladies of childbearing age spend hours on the Web making an attempt to gauge the intercourse of their baby. One such lady, who is eighteen weeks pregnant, feedback on a video of an influencer speaking about ‘indicators’ of a male foetus. “In case you really feel lazy, it’s a child boy;” “In case your associate just isn’t gaining weight, it’s a child boy,” the influencer says. The girl writes within the remark part in Hindi, “Ma’am, I’ve the identical signs. I have already got a daughter. Please pray for a child boy.”
In January 2025, the Ministry of Well being and Household Welfare wrote to States and Union Territories drawing consideration to the rising drawback of on-line promotion of intercourse dedication. It requested them to record URLs on e-commerce and social networking web sites that promote the follow.
The Ministry is liable for the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Methods (Prohibition of Intercourse Choice) Act, 1994.
The video of the identical influencer demonstrating so-called indicators for child boys is on the Delhi Well being Division’s record of 45 web site hyperlinks submitted to the Ministry. Made by a girl who shares suggestions for pregnant girls, this video is amongst her most-watched, with over 14 lakh views.
Docs and different well being professionals say that movies on intercourse dedication are non-scientific. They are often well being and security hazards, main households to terminate pregnancies via unlawful means, which may be harmful for the girl.
In 2020, the United Nations Inhabitants Fund, the UN’s sexual and reproductive well being company, launched a report that discovered that India accounted for 45.8 million of the world’s 142.6 million “lacking females”.
Lakhs of views on-line
Of the Delhi authorities’s record of 45 such web site hyperlinks, 5 are hyperlinks to books on Amazon, two are web sites, and the remaining 38 are YouTube movies made by influencers, non secular or non secular leaders, and a few even by individuals claiming to be medical medical doctors. Spiritual leaders ask individuals to chant sure mantras “to conceive a male baby”. Among the movies are now not accessible.
An influencer who shares movies on well being and way of life makes a video zooming into an ultrasound report, garnering 12 lakh views. A radiologist’s video on gender identification has 1.7 lakh views. A fertility specialist talks about how the place of the placenta within the uterus can decide the gender of the foetus, garnering 32 lakh views. One other gender prediction video made by a pregnant lady, primarily based on ‘indicators’ akin to whether or not the mom’s foot dimension has elevated, and whether or not she’s craving sugar, obtained over 15 lakh views. One ebook on this record is on Kindle’s schooling part.
A senior Delhi Well being Division official says the Centre is taking steps to take away the web site hyperlinks. “The issue is that the minute we take down one hyperlink, one other one comes up nearly instantly. After we write to platforms or social media websites, they wash their fingers of and say that it’s the duty of the content material creator or creator.”
Google and Amazon each say they may overview the hyperlinks to test if the content material has violated their pointers. Neither obtained again to The Hindu even every week after with any further info.
Perpetuating a dangerous mindset
Rizwan Parvez, a coordinator at Women Depend, a nationwide coalition of 300 organisations working to deal with skewed intercourse ratios, says, “These movies with lakhs of views are principally watched by people and households preferring sons. Whereas some would possibly watch it out of curiosity, different viewers would possibly even try to terminate a being pregnant utilizing dwelling strategies, and this poses severe well being dangers.”
He provides that whereas a lot of the content material relies on myths and is unscientific, they normalise having such conversations on-line. “Such content material reinforces the son choice and daughter unwantedness, and perpetuates the mindset that it’s regular to find out the intercourse of the foetus.” He added that such movies clearly violate provisions of the PC&PNDT Act.
Part 3A of the Act prohibits any individual from conducting or aiding in conducting intercourse choice, whereas Part 22 prohibits any type of commercial associated to pre-natal intercourse dedication, underneath which imprisonment can vary from 5 to 10 years. In its letter to States about on-line violations, the Ministry cited these two sections of the act, together with related sections of the Info Expertise Act, 2000.
Based on the Pattern Registration System (SRS) information launched by the federal government, India’s general intercourse ratio at beginning (feminine per 1,000 male) has improved in 5 years, from 904 in 2019 to 917 in 2023. However SRS, which is performed amongst 22 states and UTs, exhibits that the intercourse ratio has dropped in these years in Madhya Pradesh, from 925 to 917. West Bengal’s intercourse ratio declined from 941 to 931 in the identical years. In the meantime, in Delhi, the ‘Annual Report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi 2024’ exhibits that town’s intercourse ratio has been falling persistently since 2020, when it reached its highest stage of 933 females per 1,000 males. It dipped to 932 in 2021, 929 in 2022, and additional to 922 in 2023.
The web shift
Docs in hospitals, in addition to anganwadi and ASHA employees, say that they don’t obtain requests for intercourse predetermination as they did a couple of years in the past. Dr. Rashmi Gera, head of the household planning unit at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi, says that girls who come to the hospital for medical termination of being pregnant don’t speak about intercourse choice. “Typically, if somebody has had three daughters, I probe and attempt to counsel them. However everybody is aware of that it’s improper now.” In India, it’s authorized to terminate a being pregnant till 20 weeks for contraception or another purpose, and in some conditions as much as 24 weeks.
Niharika Tripathi, a tutorial whose analysis is on gender and inhabitants, says that such mindsets die laborious. “Earlier, there have been myths that mentioned that should you conceive on a specific date, you should have a male baby, or that in case your pores and skin is glowing, it is going to be a woman.”
Conversations about such myths happen in her Sociology class at Delhi College, the place college students focus on the myths of their respective hometowns. Tripathi provides that whereas girls are on the forefront, each on-line and offline, this mentality stems from household pressures.
This level is echoed by Praveen Okay. Pathak, Professor at JNU’s Centre for the Research of Regional Growth, who specialises in inhabitants well being and demographic adjustments: “It’s unlucky that persons are falling prey to such content material due to social pressures. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Whereas the mom may be partaking with the content material, the husband, in-laws, and prolonged household play a job in convincing her that she ought to have a male baby.”
Influencers deny hurt
Whereas the federal government is getting the hyperlinks eliminated, Women Depend has been writing to influencers telling them about why such content material is each unlawful and ethically improper. Whereas some influencers take them down, others argue that there is no such thing as a hurt of their content material, and that they “help girls’s rights”.
One influencer, who posted a video on the best way to decide the intercourse of the foetus, responded, “This stuff have been happening for years in villages and cities. When a girl obtained pregnant in any family, there have been guesses made as as to whether it’s a boy or a woman primarily based on the mom’s way of life. In earlier years, girls weren’t on-line however this nonetheless used to occur.” The influencer, who started creating content material whereas she was pregnant, factors out that as a mom of two daughters, she is aware of how “valuable” daughters are, including that the daughters in her household are cherished. She provides, “If I’ve dedicated against the law, then maybe each pregnant lady who thinks like that is committing against the law.”
One other influencer responded by posting a follow-up video speaking about how intercourse dedication is dangerous, however refused to take down the primary video about guessing the intercourse of the foetus.
In truth, Pushpa had no concept that the strain her household had placed on her was dangerous to her. “Lots of people round me mentioned {that a} boy will take the household’s title ahead, and earn to help the household. Again then, I didn’t have the braveness to battle again. It was solely when a relative, who labored as a midwife in Haryana, was arrested for facilitating intercourse choice that I realised that it was improper.”
Faint glimmers of hope
The battle to take down Web ads selling sex-determination, started in 2008 when Dr. Sabu Mathew George, a social activist, filed a petition to dam web sites that promote intercourse choice. Together with the federal government, Google India, Yahoo India, and Microsoft Company (India) Pvt. Ltd. have been respondents within the case.
In 2017, the Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra noticed that the tech giants weren’t honouring Indian legislation by permitting such ads. It ordered the structure of a nodal company particularly for Part 22 of the Act, the screening of warning messages if content material associated to intercourse dedication is displayed. It additional ordered auto-blocking of sure key phrases. The PC and PNDT Nodal Company was established underneath the Ministry of Well being and Household Welfare in February 2017.
Whereas Part 22 of the PC&PNDT Act states that no individual or organisation with expertise able to understanding the intercourse of the foetus shall subject, publish, distribute, or talk in any kind, together with the web, Women Depend has written to the Ministry suggesting amendments, with the intention to make the authorized framework extra sturdy. It has sought to incorporate “intercourse prediction via digital platforms, whether or not scientifically or in any other case, for industrial or non-commercial functions”. Women Depend has additional really useful redefining and increasing the phrase ‘commercial’ to incorporate ‘providers’ within the type of help or help supplied on-line or offline to facilitate pre-natal intercourse dedication.
An ASHA employee in south-west Delhi notes that the legislation has led to a constructive change. She says, “Until a couple of years in the past, pregnant girls would ask in regards to the intercourse of the kid. Now, out of 100 beneficiaries, possibly considered one of them will ask in regards to the gender.”
Within the remark sections of movies, many individuals say that they’re praying for a child boy. However there are additionally a couple of customers who counter them. One remark says, “Regardless of the gender is, keep blessed with a wholesome child.” Some additionally throw gentle on the truth that it’s unlawful.
In Pushpa’s household, considered one of her daughters pushes again. “My eldest daughter fights again if I say something a couple of son. In my time, I didn’t have the choice to battle this mentality, however now issues are altering slowly.”
The creator is a Laadli Media Fellow. The opinions expressed are these of the creator. Laadli and UNFPA don’t essentially endorse these views
ashna.butani@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
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