November 04, 2014
The Question
What effects has the 1996 Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act—a ban on sex-selective abortion in India—had on reducing gender imbalance in the country? Has the law affected post-natal discrimination of infant girls, as measured by infant mortality rates for each gender?
What we found
To answer our research question, we used from the Indian District Level Household Survey 2002-2004 (DLHS-2) and compared data from before the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Technique Act (pre-PNDT) to data after (post-PNDT). We also compared data from the state of Maharashtra, which passed the PNDT Act in 1988, eight years before the law was enacted throughout the country in 1996.
We found that the PNDT successfully increased the likelihood of a female birth—its intended consequence. However, PNDT merely reduced the pace of sex-selection; the female-to-male ratio of births had been steadily declining, and during the study period continued to decline. We also found that the PNDT Act did not have a significant effect on female infant mortality rates compared with male infant mortality rates, nor did it have an effect on overall rates of infant mortality in the treated areas. We therefore found no significant evidence of post-natal discrimination of girls—a possible unintended consequence of the PNDT Act.
Why it matters
The female-to-male birth ratio in India has been declining consistently over the last 40 years, which several studies have attributed primarily to the practice of sex-selective abortion—the number of aborted female fetuses in India may be up to 100,000 annually. As a result, India banned fetal sex determination in 1996 with the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Technique Act. It’s critical to know whether this act has been successful in its intended consequences—increasing the likelihood of a female birth, as well as to assess the potential unintended consequences of the legislation on infant female discrimination, as measured by female infant mortality rates.
