Female infanticide in Tamil Nadu, South India, has recently received widespread attention within India and abroad. The paper contains reflections based on over a decade of fieldwork and study of this phenomenon, and information gathered from NG0s, activists and officials.

Consumerist Culture oriented economic development, commercialisation of medical profession and sexist biases in our society, combined together have created a sad scenario of ‘missing girls’.

The contributory of science and technology in shaping various aspects of human life needs no elaboration. At present, amongst activists there are two basic streams of thought regarding such a role of science and technology. According to one, `science is neutral and value-free.