blem of female foeticide has received little attention. The female foetus is readily sacrificed on the altar of expediency, individual convenience and legal technicalities. Ease access to the techniques ofsex determination has given rise to female foeticide. In many countries, modem techniques of ultrasound scans and unuterio-sex testing which are basically designed to make pregnancy safer are ironically being abused for female foeticide. Millions of female fetuses are aborted creating a serious sex imbalance to give rise to other social problems in India and a few other South Asian countries. A study reveals that in a year around 6 million abortions took place out ofwhich only a few thousand are legal. A survey carried out in Bombay during 1984 revealed that out of 8,000 abortions, 7999 were of female fetuses1. In a much quoted study carried out in Maharashta it is revealed that a Bombay clinic which performed 8,000 operations, 7,999 ofwhich are girls. In South Korea 20,000 females are aborted every year. The same is true with China and several other third world countries2. This gruesome act OFTEN goes unnoticed and unreported. So there can be no direct evidence to establish the existence ofthis inhuman act. However there are some indicators which lead us to a positive conclusion about the existence ofthis practice. One ofthe basic indicators is the male-female Sex Ratio. Sex ratio is defined as number of females per 1000 males. The sex ratio of Indian population has always 1 Devi Laxmi, “Encyclopedia ofWomen Development and Family Welfare Series- Women and Family Welfare”, (1998) p. 141, New Delhi. Anmol Publications. 2Shaleo Nigam: Legal News and Views: July 2000 (Struggle for Survival : ISSUES in the Sex Determination and Female Foeticide) 105 been of topical interest for the demographers, social scientists, women’s groups research scholars and various planners and policy makers. Global population has increased threefold during the century from 2 billion to 6 billion, the population of India has increased nearly five times from 23 million (23 crores) to one billion in same period3. The question is when population increases why is that India has such an uneven composition of population (inconsistency in sex-ratio) compared to most of the developed countries in the world?4 3.1 Indicators ofFemale Foeticide The U.N. Statistical Office and Populations division points out that sex ratios in India seems to suggest that it is an exception to the global rule that girls have a BETTER survival rate than boys, since they are biologically stronger. The sex ratio at the International level is an average of 1050 females for every 1000 males. In India the sex ratio has steadily been declining over the years with the last census showing a sex ratio of 945 women to 1000 men. This indicates a significantly high number of “missing women”. “Missing women” denotes the difference between the expected and actual number ofliving females. The table-1 shows the sex ratio as per the census in last eleven decades. A PRELIMINARY look at the census data of2001 reveals a SEVERE scenario ofthe worsening situation. The sex ratio in the country had always remained in favorable to females. The sex ratio ofthe child population (0-6) years has declined by 18 points at the national level for 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2004. In fact all states and union territories except Kerala, Tripura and Mizoram have reported fewer girls then boys, less than six years. The decline is most pronounced in Punjab, where the sex ratio in this age group(0-6 years), fell from 875 in 1991 to 793 (a decrease of 82 points)