Sex determination represents the deep rooted gender discrimination against women and girls in India and other countries in Asia. Since 1901, when the first census of India showed a skewed sex ratio, the situation has not improved much. Although girls are killed at birth ( female infanticide), or abandoned, or die due to malnutrition and lack of medical care, much more than do the male children under the age of five, the various campaign against this have , unfortunately tended to focus on abortion.

The Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 governs Prenatal Sex Determination in India. The act banned prenatal sex determination. The main purpose of enacting the act is to ban the use of sex selection techniques before or after conception and prevent the misuse of prenatal diagnostic technique for gender discrimination. By this act, the offences are listed as including the conducting or helping in the conduct of prenatal diagnostic technique in the unregistered units, sex selection on a man or woman, conducting PND test for any purpose other than the one mentioned in the act, sale, distribution, supply, renting etc. of any ultra sound machine or any other equipment capable of detecting sex of the foetus.

The Act prohibits sex selection, both, before or after conception. It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, like ultrasound and amniocentesis. These methods, by this act, are allowed to be used only to detect genetic abnormalities, metabolic disorders, chromosomal abnormalities, certain congenital malformations, haemoglobinopathies and         sex linked disorders.[1] By the act, no laboratory or centre or clinic should conduct any test including ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus; and, no person, including the one who is conducting the procedure as per the law, will communicate the sex of the foetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives by words, signs or any other method.[2] Any person who puts out an advertisement for pre-natal and pre-conception sex determination facilities in the form of a notice, circular, label, wrapper or any document, or advertises through interior or other media in electronic or print form or engages in any visible representation made by means of hoarding, wall painting, signal, light, sound, smoke or gas, can be imprisoned for up to three years and fined Rs. 10,000.

Despite this law and its strict enforcement in many places, the social position of women has not changed. We continue to have politicians and others in public office make derogatory statements about women while violence against them continues unabated.

Is the law enough ?