Falling Sex Ratio a Serious Concern

The battle against gender discrimination in India is tough and long.  Even before a child is born everyone wishes for a son, and when a mother delivers a daughter, her relatives start consoling her that next time she will be blessed with a son.

Gender biases are found in the majority of families. In their conversations, in division of work, in the way the male and female children are dressed and in the opportunity for education provided to them. It is appalling to find that a female child is killed in the womb in the 21st Century.

Sex ratio at birth in the national capital has been continuously declining since the pandemic, with the number of females per 1,000 males falling from 922 in 2023 to 920 in 2024. It was 933 in 2020.

According to a senior official who works at the Delhi health department there is a rise in the misuse of Non-Invasive Prenatal Test systems. It’s a screening test offered during pregnancy to see if the foetus has any abnormalities. The test can also determine the sex of the foetus. It’s done by taking a blood sample, which also contains fragments of DNA from the foetus.

The official also pointed out the poor enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (1994), which prohibits sex determination tests. Between April 2024 and March 2025, district authorities carried out only 10% of the required annual inspections. According to the law, diagnostic centres, maternity homes, IVF clinics, and hospitals must be inspected every quarter.

It was revealed in the annual report on registration of births and deaths in Delhi released by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics and the Office of Chief Registrar (births and deaths) of the Delhi Government for 2024.

Sex ratio at birth in Ghaziabad has also seen a sharp decline this year. The number of girls per 1,000 boys has been recorded at 887 in July and 853 in August, a sharp dip below the 2024 average of 956. Haryana’s sex ratio at birth was 910 in 2024 falling from 916 in 2023.

The centre’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme was launched in 2015 with the aim to prevent decline in the child sex ratio, prevent gender-biased sex-selective elimination and to promote survival, protection and education of the girl child but even after ten years, it has not made major differences. The recent figures of sex ratio at birth have revealed that illegal sex determination tests are still continuing in the country, and the fight to eliminate female foeticide has not progressed much.

In recent years several cases of illegal sex determination tests have been reported from Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh. Last month a sex determination centre was busted jointly by Haryana’s health department and its counterpart in Noida. The centre was being run at a private radiology centre, Bharat Scanning Centre, in sector 37 in Noida. It was raided after health officials in Panipat received a tip-off. According to the officials, the centre had been running for over 10 years.

In August a cross-border sex determination racket operating across Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh was busted. The gang was involved in illegal pre-natal sex determination tests for several years, luring women from Rajasthan. According to a media report in the last decade Uttar Pradesh has become the preferred destination for couples from Haryana seeking illegal sex determination tests to know the gender of their unborn children.

The shift is seen as a fallout of Haryana’s intensified crackdown on female foeticide after the launch of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign.

Ten years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the campaign in Panipat, officials associated with it said 205 FIRs have been registered in such cases. These are among the 400 FIRs lodged on complaints from different authorities in the state following inter-state raids to curb sex determination and female foeticide, the officials added.

Despite a decade of efforts under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme, the grim reality reflected in declining sex ratio and the persistence of illegal sex determination practices reveals that India’s battle against gender discrimination is far from over. The preference for a male child continues to manifest in subtle biases and overt crimes like female foeticide. Implementing policies is not sufficient, the fight is against the mindset. Protecting the girl child must move beyond slogans—it must become a collective moral and legal responsibility. The time has come for society to introspect, educate, and act decisively to ensure that every girl child is welcomed, valued, and given an equal chance in life.