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 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)

India is a signatory to the Alma Ata declaration and has committed herself to achieving "Health for All by the Year 2000". Since then, a lot of planning, effort and public expenditure has been devoted to improving the health of the people both in rural and urban areas of the country.

Acceptance and sustained use of family planning especially of modern spacing methods have generally been low in developing countries particularly in India. The use rate for modern spacing methods was only 6 per cent among the eligible couples in India in 1992 (IIPS, 1995).

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the scope and significance of gynaecological problems experienced by poor women in developing countries.

In India tribals are neglected a lot, discriminated in terms of income distribution and social status.

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?