Every year, as millions of women marry, they dream of starting a family, of having their homes filled with tiny cries and the happy laughter of gurgling babies. In India however, pregnancy is too often followed by the question of
whether the unborn child is a girl or a boy.

The stark white room is echoing with dreams. "I want to become a doctor... I am engineer... I want to become a nun... (this evokes a riot of laughter) I want to become a dress designer... My dream is to become a social worker ....

The high female infant mortality rates (Miller, 1985), the practice of female infanticide (Krishnaswamy, 1988), the neglect of female children with regard to access to health services, nutrition (Sen and Sengupta 1983) and education (Mankekar, 1985), and the sexual abuse of girls (Bhalerao, 1985)

The impact of the family planning (FP) programme over the years is showing varying impacts on fertility across regions and population groups in India.

How does one analytically locate the social phenomenon manifested in India during the last few years since the advent of sex-selection technology in the mid- 70s?