Female foeticide has assumed alarming proportions

(Sept.01,2010) In India, female foeticide has assumed alarming proportions. Alarmed by the rise in female foeticide among the educated classes of Maharashtra, the state home minister R R Patil has said that the issue should be given top priority, and must be dealt with immediately by the police and the state government. "For now, this question seems small but in the long run it might cause havoc and develop into a social disaster," he said.
Every year, 10 lakh female foeticides take place in the country with the help of gender determination tests," Patil wrote on his blog. Today's woman is educated and has reached a respectable place in our society but people treat the birth of a girl child as a kind of catastrophe, Patil added. The minister cited the Human Development Report 2002 published by Maharashtra Government, which says 84 per cent of women are of the opinion that they should have at least one son. "With the help of modern technology, many pregnant women illegally perform gender detection tests and then abort the female foetus," Patil said .“ Unfortunately, the educated classes and some skilled doctors are part of this act, he added