Female foeticide in India(Hindi:भ्रूणहत्या,translit.bhrūṇ-hatyā,lit.'foeticide') is theabortionof a female foetus outside of legal methods.The frequency offemale foeticidein India is increasing day byday. The naturalratiois assumed to be between 103 and 107, and any number above it is considered as suggestive of female foeticide.India passed its first abortion-related law, the so-called Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, making abortion legal in most states, but specified legally acceptable reasons for abortion such as medical risk to mother and rape. The law also established physicians who can legally provide the procedure and the facilities where abortions can be performed, but did not anticipate female foeticide based on technology advances.With increasing availability of sex screening technologies in India through the 1980s in urban India, and claims of its misuse, the Government of India passed thePre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT)in 1994. This law was further amended into the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) (PCPNDT) Act in 2004 to deter and punish prenatal sex screening and female foeticide. However, there are concerns that PCPNDT Act has been poorly enforced by authorities.