Sex-Selective Abortion and the State: Policies, Laws and Institutions in India

Sex-Selective Abortion and the State: Policies, laws and Institutions in India is an incisive analysis of the countering of gender discrimination by the Indian State. The selective elimination of female foetuses due to not wanting a female child has led to an imbalance in the child sex ratio of India. The Census of India 2011 has revealed that there are only 919 girls per 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group. The book critically examines the policies, programmes, laws and schemes that have been unfurled by the state to improve the situation. It contextualises the debate, developments and disagreements that exist in the field by using a feminist theoretical lens. Can the state bring an end to sex-selective abortion and enhance the value of the girl-child in the country? What kind of role can the feminists play in enabling the state in doing so? (jacket)