Disclaimer: Intercourse dedication is against the law and a punishable offense beneath the Pre-Conception (PC) and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Strategies (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 in the future, 11 years later, when the checks revealed a male fetus, she was relieved. The stress from the household would ease.
This was 1993, a 12 months earlier than the Invoice that might debar intercourse dedication was handed. Parliament felt the necessity to formulate a legislation on this after it was constantly discovered that the medical screening for gender typically led folks to commit feminine foeticide. In India’s 1991 inhabitants Census, the intercourse ratio stood at 929 females for each 1,000 males.
Just a little over 30 years on, the household’s internalized bias finds voice once more, as one among Pushpa’s daughters gave beginning to sons, and one other to daughters.
“Daughters are fantastic, and everybody is aware of intercourse choice is unsuitable,” 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} do not speak about preferring a son brazenly 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 youngster. One such lady, who is eighteen weeks pregnant, feedback on a video of an influencer speaking about ‘indicators’ of a male fetus. “In case you really feel lazy, it is a child boy;” “In case your accomplice shouldn’t be gaining weight, it is 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 downside of on-line promotion of intercourse dedication. It requested them to checklist URLs on e-commerce and social networking web sites that promote the observe.
The Ministry is accountable for the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Strategies (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 checklist of 45 web site hyperlinks submitted to the Ministry. Made by a lady who shares suggestions for pregnant ladies, 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 by means of unlawful means, which could 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 checklist 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 religious leaders, and a few even by folks claiming to be medical medical doctors. Spiritual leaders ask folks to chant sure mantras “to conceive a male youngster”. A number of the movies are not obtainable.
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 fetus, garnering 32 lakh views. One other gender prediction video made by a pregnant lady, based mostly 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 checklist is on Kindle’s training part.
A senior Delhi Well being Division official says the Middle 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 accountability of the content material creator or writer.”
Google and Amazon each say they’ll assessment the hyperlinks to examine if the content material has violated their tips. Neither received again to The Hindu even per week later with any further data.
Perpetuating a dangerous mindset
Rizwan Parvez, a coordinator at Ladies Depend, a nationwide coalition of 300 organizations 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 house strategies, and this poses severe well being dangers.”
He provides that whereas many of the content material relies on myths and is unscientific, they normalize having such conversations on-line. “Such content material reinforces the son desire and daughter unwantedness, and perpetuates the mindset that it’s regular to find out the intercourse of the fetus.” 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 form of commercial associated to pre-natal intercourse dedication, beneath 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 Know-how Act, 2000.
In keeping with the Pattern Registration System (SRS) knowledge 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 carried out amongst 22 states and UTs, reveals that the intercourse ratio has dropped in these years in Madhya Pradesh, from 925 to 917. West Bengal’s The 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’ reveals that town’s intercourse ratio has been falling constantly since 2020, when it reached its highest degree of 933 females per 1,000 males. It dipped to 932 in 2021, 929 in 2022, and additional to 922 in 2023.
The net shift
Docs in hospitals, in addition to anganwadi and ASHA staff, say that they don’t obtain requests for intercourse predetermination as they did just a few years in the past. Dr. Rashmi Gera, head of the household planning unit at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi, says that ladies who come to the hospital for medical termination of being pregnant don’t speak about intercourse choice. “Generally, if somebody has had three daughters, I probe and attempt to counsel them. However everybody is aware of that it’s unsuitable now.” In India, it’s authorized to terminate a being pregnant till 20 weeks for contraception or every other cause, and in some conditions as much as 24 weeks.
Niharika Tripathi, an instructional whose analysis is on gender and inhabitants, says that such mindsets die exhausting. “Earlier, there have been myths that mentioned that should you conceive on a selected date, you should have a male youngster, or that in case your pores and skin is glowing, it will likely be a lady.”
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 ladies 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 Middle for the Research of Regional Improvement, who focuses on inhabitants well being and demographic adjustments: “It’s unlucky that individuals are falling prey to such content material due to social pressures. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Whereas the mom could be participating with the content material, the husband, in-laws, and prolonged household play a task in convincing her that she ought to have a male youngster.”
Influencers deny hurt
Whereas the federal government is getting the hyperlinks eliminated, Ladies Depend has been writing to influencers telling them about why such content material is each unlawful and ethically unsuitable. 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 ladies’s rights”.
One influencer, who posted a video on how one can decide the intercourse of the fetus, responded, “This stuff have been happening for years in villages and cities. When a lady received pregnant in any family, there have been guesses made as as to if it’s a boy or a lady based mostly on the mom’s way of life. In earlier years, ladies 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 a criminal offense, then maybe each pregnant lady who thinks like that is committing a criminal offense.”
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 fetus.
In reality, Pushpa had no concept that the stress 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 struggle again. It was solely when a relative, who labored as a midwife in Haryana, was arrested for facilitating intercourse choice that I spotted that it was unsuitable.”
Faint glimmers of hope
The struggle to take down Web commercials 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. had 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 honoring Indian legislation by permitting such commercials. 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 beneath the Ministry of Well being and Household Welfare in February 2017.
Whereas Part 22 of the PC&PNDT Act states that no individual or group with expertise able to understanding the intercourse of the fetus shall difficulty, publish, distribute, or talk in any type, together with the web, Ladies Depend has written to the Ministry suggesting amendments, with a view to make the authorized framework extra sturdy. It has sought to incorporate “intercourse prediction by means of digital platforms, whether or not scientifically or in any other case, for industrial or non-commercial functions”. Ladies Depend has additional really helpful 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 optimistic change. She says, “Until just a few years in the past, pregnant ladies would ask in regards to the intercourse of the kid. Now, out of 100 beneficiaries, perhaps one among 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 just a few customers who counter them. One remark says, “Regardless of the gender is, keep blessed with a wholesome child.” Some additionally throw mild on the truth that it’s unlawful.
In Pushpa’s household, one among her daughters pushes again. “My eldest daughter fights again if I say something a few son. In my time, I didn’t have the choice to struggle this mentality, however now issues are altering slowly.”
The writer is a Laadli Media Fellow. The opinions expressed are these of the writer. Laadli and UNFPA don’t essentially endorse these views
ashna.butani@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew