Sex Selective Abortions:Inflections of Patriarchy and Modernity

In India the societies are mostly patriarchal. In these patriarchal societies, sons are favored rather than daughters. This may express itself in different ways. First, parents may prefer the birth of male rather than a female child. In extreme cases, female foeticide and infanticide, as reported from some parts of India , because of this preference. However, this preference does not always result in such extreme behavior. Secondly, daughters may be deprived of education, medical attention, food and other necessities of life relative to sons. This practice is also reported to occur widely in India, particularly in the north, and especially, in the northwest of India Sen Prejudice against females and their deprivation in India, results in their under-representation in the total population in all age groups. Due to such factors, the number of "missing" women in India most likely amounts to more than 50 million, or around 5 per cent of its population. In fact, Kleson estimated it to be as high as 80 million in the early 1990s so the number of Indian "missing" women could now be well in excess of 50 million. The present paper tries to analyze the female feticide sociologically to understand its social implications on gender relationships and social formations. This paper is based on seven case studies using elaborative impressionistic model to understand the relationship of gender, patriarchy and modernity.