Causes of Female Foeticide Among Males and Females in Kashmir Valley

Female foeticide is the act of assassination a female foetus outside of the legal channels of abortion. It occurs in India for unspecified cultural reasons that span centuries. The frequency of female foeticide in India is assumed to be an estimation derived from its high birth sex ratio that is the ratio of boys to girls at birth. The natural ratio is assumed to be of 103 to 107, and any number above it is considered as suggestive of female foeticide. According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0 to 6 age group in India has risen from 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961, to 104.2 in 1980, to 107.5 in 2001, to 108.9 in 2011. The research was carried out by survey of 400 families in 10 districts of Kashmir. The data was collected with the help of scale namely Female Foeticide Scale constructed by Shah et al. (1993) with the respective families. The results of the study shows that better destiny for the parents can be ensured by son merely, because a male in the family is traditionally considered to be a source-source of money, source of respect, source of name and fame. A man is expected to work and earn for his family-in the process repaying all that was cost to bring him up. A woman is considered a financial obligation, as money spent on bringing her up, educating her, marrying her will not be repaid-as she will go to her husband's house after marriage, and the benefits of all that ‘investment' shall go to his family. Consequences also show that birth of a female child lowers the status of a family and a mother in the society. The findings of the study highlighted that maximum of the respondents among males and females feel that people who go in for female foeticide should be fined heavily by law.