Essay on Female Foeticide: Aborting or terminating female fetuses in the womb before its growth and development is called female foeticide. India has always been a male dominated society with greater affinity for sons and not daughters. This mindset, especially among the uneducated masses, has led to the killing of female fetuses. Detection of sex before birth by misusing medical technologies is considered illegal in India. Female foeticide is a significant factor for the declining sex ratio in our country.
Essay on Female Foeticide 500 Words in English
Below we have provided Female Foeticide Essay in English, suitable for class 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.
It’s an irony that even in the world of the 21st century, homo sapiens are still keeping up with their gender biases and are practicing brutalities like female foeticide and infanticide. Ever wondered how the world would be like without girls and women? Do these murderers who do female foeticide even realize that there, in fact, won’t exist any world without women? What gives these insane people the right to take lives and kill innocent children even before they take birth just because of their gender? It’s high time to make these people learn the lessons of civilization and humanity. We need to protect the girl child and let them live a life of dignity, equal opportunities, and freedom.
What is Female Foeticide?
As a medical term, foeticide is the destruction of a fetus in the womb of the mother itself. Ultrasound technology is available using which sex of the child can be determined while the fetus is in the womb and parents who don’t want a girl child undergo this test and then kill the baby in the womb before it is born.
The sex-selective abortion is not at all supportable. ‘Historically, in the absence of genetic testing, infanticide was the only inhumane option for discarding the female child. This heinous practise continues even today in India’s southern parts, where families cannot afford an illegal ultrasound test.
According to a recent figure, A UN Report was recorded saying that at least 117 million girls worldwide demographically go “missing” due to sex-selective abortion. South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, China, and Tibet are the prominent recorders of high female foeticide incidents. Also, UNICEF estimates that the foeticide industry’s turnover has now reached 244 million dollars from 77 million dollars in 2006.
Factors Responsible for Female Foeticide
Economic Factors: Many parents who expect a girl child opt to have an abortion because of the economic factors involved. They believe that raising a girl child would not be economically viable as they will have to marry her off, and all the expenditure on her education and other things won’t do any good to them.
Socio-Ritual Factors: Daughters are also perceived as a disgrace in Indian society as the parents have to maintain a status in society. A typical traditional Indian family wishes that their family name continues, which, according to them, can be done only through a son.
Technical Factors: The technical factors responsible for the surging number of female foeticide cases are the viable availability of ultrasonic machines that can detect the gender of the fetus in the womb itself.
Effective Measures to Control
Government and individual institutions are trying their best to deal with this menace .Here are few prevalent laws implemented by the governments of India and China:-
- Beijing, China has the Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China of 2002 that prohibits sex identification of foetus and sex-selective abortions.
- In India, the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (amended in 2003) prohibits sex-selection or disclosure of the sex of the foetus. It also prohibits sale of “any ultrasound machine or any other equipment capable of detecting sex of foetus” to persons, laboratories and clinics not registered under the Act .The government of India also recently launched the ‘BETI BACHAO ,BETI PADHAO’ Movement in order to promote girl education and demote the practice of female foeticide and infanticide.
- Nepal, in 2002, amended the Country Code, Muluki Ain, to allow abortion on medical grounds and prohibit sex-selective abortions.
- The Population Ordinance (2006) and Prime Minister Decree (2006) of Vietnam prohibits all practices of antenatal foetal sex diagnosis and sex selection.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India has targeted education and media advertisements to reach clinics and medical professionals to increase awareness. The Indian Medical Association has undertaken efforts to prevent prenatal sex selection by giving its members Beti Bachao (save the daughter) badges during its meetings and conferences.
However, despite so many initiatives the prevailing imbalance in sex ratio (914 girls per 1000 boys) tell that there has been some drawbacks in the fulfilment and achievement of such actions .Weak law enforcement and easy access to ultrasonography fail to curb this practice.