The practice of female infanticide in India.

Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of a newborn female child. It is a severe problem in countries such as India, Pakistan and China. This alarming practice is linked to the ‘low status’ of women in these patriarchal societies, in which the male child is more valued.
Based on the findings of a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India’s population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India. In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males.
However in India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men.

Female infanticide is still a heinous prevalent practice in India today. It exists mainly due to other problematic issues such as poverty, illiteracy, child marriage, the dowry system etc. Although this practice has been criminalized, it is one of the most underreported crimes in India. The 2011 census has revealed India’s skewed sex ratio, where there are 914 females for every 1000 males.


Save the Children is committed to eradicating female infanticide in India. We run various programs to educate various communities in order to change the stereotypes that exist about females in society. Save the Children strives to empower young girls by giving them the access needed to proper education, healthcare and sanitation.
The government of India has come up with various schemes to reduce the discrimination against females, and to change the existing negative notions that people have about them. ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ is one such initiative which aims to ensure the survival, safety, and education of young girls.


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.

UNICEF states that the killing of baby girls has reached genocidal proportions. It is a practice that has gone on “in central India for a long time, where mothers were made to feed the child with salt to kill the girl.” Various other gruesome methods of murder are employed, many dating back to the 18th Century: stuffing the baby girl’s mouth with a few grains of coarse paddy causing the child to choke to death is one, poisoning, using organic or inorganic chemicals, drowning, suffocation, starvation and breaking the spinal cord, as well as burying the child alive.
Easier access to education and reproductive health services, as well as creating awareness regarding the value of the girl child, can contribute massively towards curbing the practice of female infanticide. A strong political commitment on the national and community levels, and collaborations with the media and the judicial sectors, could also play a key role.

Save the Children is a leading child right’s NGO, which aims to ensure that every girl child gets a happy, safe and bright future. Save the Children works in partnership with ministries such as the ministry of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development. We also work with many civil society partners and those who donate to our initiatives.