Female foeticide has assumed alarming proportions - Maharashtra Home
Minister R R Patil

MUMBAI, Aug. 31, 2010, 15:15 Hrs (TOI):

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. The problem of female foeticide has assumed alarming proportions and the state home department should be more sensitive to the issue, he has said.

"For now this question seems minuscule but in the long run it might cause havoc and develop into a social disaster," Patil said.

"Female foeticide is on the rise, especially among educated class and in higher strata of society. It has assumed an alarming proportion. 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 birth of a girl as a kind of catastrophe, Patil said.

The minister cited the Human Development Report 2002 published by Maharashtra Government which says 84 per cent women are of the opinion that they should have at least one son.

"With the help of modern technology, many pregnant women, relatives and a few doctors (I am not blaming all the doctors) collude and illegally perform gender detection tests and then abort the female foetus," he said.

“Unfortunately, the educated classes and some skilled doctors are part of this nexus.”

“As the home minister, I am of the opinion that the state’s police and home department should immediately curb the kind of criminal activity, In our state, robbery detection takes precedence over the crime of gender selection, which at present is given the lowest priority,” Mr. Patil observed.