Disclaimer: Sex determination is illegal and a punishable offence under the Pre-Conception (PC) and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1994
After having three daughters, my husband would get drunk and threaten me with divorce if I did not give him a son,” says Delhi-based Pushpa (name changed to protect privacy). Then one day, 11 years later, when the tests revealed a male foetus, she was relieved. The pressure from the family would ease.
This was 1993, a year before the Bill that would debar sex determination was passed. Parliament felt the need to formulate a law on this after it was consistently found that the medical screening for gender sometimes led people to commit female foeticide. In India’s 1991 population Census, the sex ratio stood at 929 females for every 1,000 males.
A little over 30 years on, the family’s internalised bias finds voice again, as one of Pushpa’s daughters gave birth to sons, and another to daughters.
“Daughters are wonderful, and everyone knows sex selection is wrong,” she says, but also admits to wanting grandsons. Pushpa, who is now 61, has worked at a creche in Delhi for 34 years, so she has seen several generations of parents. She notes a change: “Couples don’t talk about preferring a son openly like they used to, but they still do, behind closed doors.”
Behind closed doors, lakhs of women of childbearing age spend hours on the Internet trying to gauge the sex of their child. One such woman, who is 18 weeks pregnant, comments on a video of an influencer talking about ‘signs’ of a male foetus. “If you feel lazy, it’s a baby boy;” “If your partner is not gaining weight, it’s a baby boy,” the influencer says. The woman writes in the comment section in Hindi, “Ma’am, I have the same symptoms. I already have a daughter. Please pray for a baby boy.”
In January 2025, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare wrote to States and Union Territories drawing attention to the growing problem of online promotion of sex determination. It asked them to list URLs on e-commerce and social networking websites that promote the practice.
The Ministry is responsible for the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994.
The video of the same influencer demonstrating so-called signs for baby boys is on the Delhi Health Department’s list of 45 website links submitted to the Ministry. Made by a woman who shares tips for pregnant women, this video is among her most-watched, with over 14 lakh views.
Doctors and other health professionals say that videos on sex determination are non-scientific. They can be health and safety hazards, leading families to terminate pregnancies through illegal means, which can be dangerous for the woman.
In 2020, the United Nations Population Fund, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, released a report that found that India accounted for 45.8 million of the world’s 142.6 million “missing females”.
Lakhs of views online
Of the Delhi government’s list of 45 such website links, five are links to books on Amazon, two are websites, and the remaining 38 are YouTube videos made by influencers, religious or spiritual leaders, and some even by people claiming to be medical doctors. Religious leaders ask people to chant certain mantras “to conceive a male child”. Some of the videos are no longer available.
An influencer who shares videos on health and lifestyle makes a video zooming into an ultrasound report, garnering 12 lakh views. A radiologist’s video on gender identification has 1.7 lakh views. A fertility specialist talks about how the position of the placenta in the uterus can determine the gender of the foetus, garnering 32 lakh views. Another gender prediction video made by a pregnant woman, based on ‘signs’ such as whether the mother’s foot size has increased, and whether she’s craving sugar, received over 15 lakh views. One book on this list is on Kindle’s education section.
A senior Delhi Health Department official says the Centre is taking steps to remove the website links. “The problem is that the minute we take down one link, another one comes up almost immediately. When we write to platforms or social media sites, they wash their hands of and say that it is the responsibility of the content creator or author.”
Google and Amazon both say they will review the links to check if the content has violated their guidelines. Neither got back to The Hindu even a week after with any additional information.
Perpetuating a harmful mindset
Rizwan Parvez, a coordinator at Girls Count, a national coalition of 300 organisations working to address skewed sex ratios, says, “These videos with lakhs of views are mostly watched by individuals and families who prefer sons. While some might watch it out of curiosity, other viewers might even attempt to terminate a pregnancy using home methods, and this poses serious health risks.”
He adds that while most of the content is based on myths and is unscientific, they normalise having such conversations online. “Such content reinforces the son preference and daughter unwantedness, and perpetuates the mindset that it is normal to determine the sex of the foetus.” He added that such videos clearly violate provisions of the PC&PNDT Act.
Section 3A of the Act prohibits any person from conducting or aiding in conducting sex selection, while Section 22 prohibits any sort of advertisement related to pre-natal sex determination, under which imprisonment can range from 5 to 10 years. In its letter to States about online violations, the Ministry cited these two sections of the act, along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) data released by the government, India’s overall sex ratio at birth (female per 1,000 male) has improved in five years, from 904 in 2019 to 917 in 2023. But SRS, which is conducted among 22 states and UTs, shows that the sex ratio has dropped in these years in Madhya Pradesh, from 925 to 917. West Bengal’s sex ratio declined from 941 to 931 in the same years. Meanwhile, in Delhi, the ‘Annual Report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi 2024’ shows that the city’s sex ratio has been falling consistently since 2020, when it reached its highest level of 933 females per 1,000 males. It dipped to 932 in 2021, 929 in 2022, and further to 922 in 2023.
The online shift
Doctors in hospitals, as well as anganwadi and ASHA workers, say that they do not receive requests for sex predetermination as they did a few years ago. Dr. Rashmi Gera, head of the family planning unit at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi, says that women who come to the hospital for medical termination of pregnancy do not talk about sex selection. “Sometimes, if someone has had three daughters, I probe and try to counsel them. But everyone knows that it is wrong now.” In India, it is legal to terminate a pregnancy until 20 weeks for birth control or any other reason, and in some situations up to 24 weeks.
Niharika Tripathi, an academic whose research is on gender and population, says that such mindsets die hard. “Earlier, there were myths that said that if you conceive on a particular date, you will have a male child, or that if your skin is glowing, it will be a girl.”
Conversations about such myths take place in her Sociology class at Delhi University, where students discuss the myths in their respective hometowns. Tripathi adds that while women are at the forefront, both online and offline, this mentality stems from family pressures.
This point is echoed by Praveen K. Pathak, Professor at JNU’s Centre for the Study of Regional Development, who specialises in population health and demographic changes: “It is unfortunate that people are falling prey to such content because of social pressures. This does not take place in a vacuum. While the mother might be engaging with the content, the husband, in-laws, and extended family play a role in convincing her that she should have a male child.”
Influencers deny harm
While the government is getting the links removed, Girls Count has been writing to influencers telling them about why such content is both illegal and ethically wrong. While some influencers take them down, others argue that there is no harm in their content, and that they “support women’s rights”.
One influencer, who posted a video on how to determine the sex of the foetus, responded, “These things have been going on for years in villages and cities. When a woman got pregnant in any household, there were guesses made as to whether it is a boy or a girl based on the mother’s lifestyle. In earlier years, women were not online but this still used to happen.” The influencer, who began creating content while she was pregnant, points out that as a mother of two daughters, she knows how “precious” daughters are, adding that the daughters in her family are loved. She adds, “If I have committed a crime, then perhaps every pregnant woman who thinks like this is committing a crime.”
Another influencer responded by posting a follow-up video talking about how sex determination is harmful, but refused to take down the first video about guessing the sex of the foetus.
In fact, Pushpa had no idea that the pressure her family had put on her was harmful to her. “A lot of people around me said that a boy will take the family’s name forward, and earn to support the family. Back then, I did not have the courage to fight back. It was only when a relative, who worked as a midwife in Haryana, was arrested for facilitating sex selection that I realised that it was wrong.”
Faint glimmers of hope
The fight to take down Internet advertisements promoting sex-determination, began in 2008 when Dr. Sabu Mathew George, a social activist, filed a petition to block websites that promote sex selection. Along with the government, Google India, Yahoo India, and Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. were respondents in the case.
In 2017, the Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed that the tech giants were not honouring Indian law by allowing such advertisements. It ordered the constitution of a nodal agency specifically for Section 22 of the Act, the screening of warning messages if content related to sex determination is displayed. It further ordered auto-blocking of certain keywords. The PC and PNDT Nodal Agency was established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in February 2017.
While Section 22 of the PC&PNDT Act states that no person or organisation with technology capable of understanding the sex of the foetus shall issue, publish, distribute, or communicate in any form, including the internet, Girls Count has written to the Ministry suggesting amendments, in order to make the legal framework more robust. It has sought to include “sex prediction through digital platforms, whether scientifically or otherwise, for commercial or non-commercial purposes”. Girls Count has further recommended redefining and expanding the word ‘advertisement’ to include ‘services’ in the form of assistance or support provided online or offline to facilitate pre-natal sex determination.
An ASHA worker in south-west Delhi notes that the law has brought about a positive change. She says, “Till a few years ago, pregnant women would ask about the sex of the child. Now, out of 100 beneficiaries, maybe one of them will ask about the gender.”
In the comment sections of videos, many people say that they are praying for a baby boy. But there are also a few users who counter them. One comment says, “Whatever the gender is, stay blessed with a healthy baby.” Some also throw light on the fact that it is illegal.
In Pushpa’s family, one of her daughters pushes back. “My eldest daughter fights back if I say anything about a son. In my time, I did not have the option to fight this mentality, but now things are changing slowly.”
The author is a Laadli Media Fellow. The opinions expressed are those of the author. Laadli and UNFPA do not necessarily endorse these views
ashna.butani@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
