Skewed Sex Ratio and Women's Reproductive Rights in India: Issues and Challenges

Reproductive rights of women are certain basic legal rights and freedoms of women relating to reproduction and reproductive health that are already acknowledged in international human rights treaties. This may include the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of her children and to make decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence. The ability of woman to control her own fertility is a key component of reproductive rights as defined by Cairo agenda. The strict implementation of both Medical Termination of pregnancy Act (which prohibits abortion except only in certain qualified situations), and Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (which prohibits the sex selection of foetus with a view towards aborting it) violates the reproductive rights given to women. This paper examines the conflict between reproductive rights and declining sex ratio. The issue of declining number of females per thousand males in India has been examined in the study. The paper also proposed the effective solution for tackling the issue of sex ratio imbalance in the country.