Revision summary
Son preference plus ultrasound created a market in missing daughters. PCPNDT exists to stop sex selection disguised as diagnosis. Prosperity did not remove the demand; it sometimes bought the test. Weak implementation leaves the Act unused. Law is necessary and must travel with property and honour reform.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
The PCPNDT Act is necessary because diagnostic technology made son preference a market. Without a ban on sex selection, Seed and Earth kinship plus cheap ultrasound would keep producing missing girls.
Body
The social problem
- Child sex ratio decline in prosperous belts showed that wealth and education did not automatically save daughters.
- Leela Dube’s metaphor explains the demand: the seed line wants sons; the girl is a transferable cost, often via dowry.
- Pre-natal tests turned female foeticide into a clinic service, worse in some ways than older infanticide because it looks medical.
Why implementation, not only a law on paper
- Clinics, doctors, and families collude. Weak inspection makes the Act a signboard.
- Implementation protects the future electorate, labour, and marriage market from a surplus of men and a deficit of women, with trafficking and violence as known risks.
Limits of law
- The Act cannot by itself end patriliny. Succession rights, pensions, and honour codes must move with it.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SP[Son preference] --> US[Ultrasound market] US --> MG[Missing girls] PCP[PCPNDT enforced] --> BR[Brake on selection]
Conclusion
PCPNDT is necessary as a brake on technological sex selection in a son-preferring society. Implementation is the difference between a statute and a still-falling ratio.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Main objective of Tribal sub plan (TSP)
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q5(b)). View answer →
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Does the Act ban all ultrasound?
No. It regulates use and disclosure so that sex selection is not the point of the scan.
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Is this anti-choice?
The target is sex selection as discrimination, not all reproductive health care.
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