(Oh, God, I beg of you, I touch your feet time and again, Next birth don't give me a daughter, Give me Hell instead... )

Folk Song, Uttar Pradesh

The current trends have even refuted the common belief that the practice of eliminating the female child will get discouraged with the economic independence of women on the rise.

A survey by Action India of women in Delhi revealed that even the highly educated women have resorted to as many as a whopping eight abortions to ensure that they only give birth to a son.

One of the main reasons as pointed out by the experts is the Indian government’s attempts to control its burgeoning population of over 1 billion through controlling women’s fertility. This could literally serve as the doomsday verdict as the government’s two-child family concept encourages elimination of female fetuses in order to obtain a ‘complete family’ with at least one son.
         
The obsessive inborn hunger of the Indian patriarchal set-up to have a male child in its progeny has virtually brought the ethical systems of India into shambles.

The prejudice finally takes its toll and shows itself in a drastically lopsided sex ratio in the country. 

The society is meant to be the most vital support system of a human being. It is shame then, that in a developing country, such norms of the society itself have victimized and endangered the very existence of the female child in India.

We give you an insight into the most crucial reasons:

• Menace of dowry
• Fear of loss of face in local community
• esire to keep the wealth within the family, through sons
• Fear of dependence of the girl on the family, for life
• Attempt to control family size
• Wish to appease Gods in times of crisis