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Gender Inequality Through Sonography Centers In Maharashtra, India
Dr. Smita Awachar,
Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology,
Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, India.
India has one of the worst gender ratios, indicating gross violation of women’s rights in the world. The main reason behind this is the practice of ‘Dowry System’. It is considered that the birth of girl child in the family indicates the beginning of financial ruin and hardship. Indian society considers woman as burden on the family’s resources. This attitude gives boost to avoid a girl child’s birth. This problem is getting worst as scientific methods of sex determination are evolved and performance of abortions has greatly increased since last 25 years. This facility is easily available even in rural areas in India. Hence female fetuses are selectively aborted though Government of India and Maharashtra are trying to implement strict laws for the declining child sex ratio. As a result during 2012-13 several sonography centers in Maharashtra were sealed.
The attempt has been made in the paper to identify the gaps in implementation of law and how the sonography centers are affecting the child sex ratio. The content analysis has been done of different newspapers during May 2012 to July 2013.It has been suggested that the rigorous, fast and efficient efforts are required to control over the decaling child sex ratio by Government agency.