Family Planning Policies and Resultant Discrimination Against the Girl Child - A Study of India and China

This article addresses discrimination against the girl child as an unintended consequence of reproductive laws and family planning programs in China and India. The introduction of family planning programs, coupled with the socio-cultural preference for sons in these countries, prompted widespread killing of female fetuses and infants. The family planning programs also produced depleting sex ratios, 'missing women', unregistered births, neglect and abuse of girls, female sterilization, and abandonment of baby girls. Although laws have been enacted to address some of these consequences, their implementation and enforcement is lacking. The author argues that legal action must be accompanied by state promotion of equality between men and women in order to alter the traditional mindsets that give rise to discriminatory practices.