It is a matter of great concern that females face discrimination in all walks of life; may it be health, employment or education. She does not have much control over services and resources in the economy. Ours is a male dominated society and almost all cultures, practice discrimination against the girl child, not only from the earliest stage of life, throughout her childhood and into adulthood through the means of neglect of her health and nutrition, not providing her equal opportunities in education and social interaction etc; but even before her birth in the form of pre-birth sex selection and elimination of her foetus i.e. female foeticide. The declining sex ratio is an open secret of gender bias. Nowadays we find girl babies being killed even before their birth i.e. in the mother's womb itself. These sex selective abortions are a matter of great concern and include social and demographic implications. It is one of the major causes and determinants of declining sex ratio clearly points towards human intervention by way of sex selective abortions. This paper introduces the complexity leading to the low overall sex ratio, particularly the child sex ratio in the age group of 0–6 years. An attempt has been made to study the trends in sex ratio across major states of India, with special reference of Punjab and Haryana, wherein the low and declining sex ratio, shows the grim picture of girl children in the society. The study also attempts to examine the role of state government in the elimination of gender inequality through strict implementation of state legislation and Act like PNDT.
