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
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
-
Main objective of Tribal sub plan (TSP)
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q5(b)). View answer →
-
Does the Act ban all ultrasound?
No. It regulates use and disclosure so that sex selection is not the point of the scan.
-
Is this anti-choice?
The target is sex selection as discrimination, not all reproductive health care.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2015 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Verrier Elwin's views on freedom for the tribals -
2015 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Jyotirao Phule as an agrarian radical -
2015 · Q1(d) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
How far Gandhiji was trusted by the untouchables -
2015 · Q1(e) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Feminization of poverty. -
2015 · Q4(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss Marxist approach to the analysis of Indian nationalism. -
2015 · Q4(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
What are the basic tenets of Hindu religion? Is Hinduism based on monotheism or polytheism? -
2015 · Q5(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Main objective of Tribal sub plan (TSP) -
2015 · Q7(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss B.R. Ambedkar as a wise democrat.
More from this topic
Q7(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
"Educational development is the only Panacea for country's all ills and evils." Critically examine the above statement with reference to NEP-2020
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Education is necessary for mobility and anti-caste citizenship but not a solo panacea. NEP 2020 reforms structure, language, vocation and equity on paper. Without teachers, public finance and jobs, it becomes credentialism and a dual private-public system. Caste, land and informal labour reproduce ills that schooling alone cannot dissolve. Phule–Ambedkar were right to start with the school and wrong if we stop there.
Q7(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged? Suggest measures to curb down the challenges before care givers of the aged
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Private support for the aged is still mainly kin, plus a small paid-care market. Public support is pensions, NPHCE and the 2007 Maintenance Act, all thin relative to need. Nuclear residence and migration weaken the joint-family guarantee without ending dependence. Caregivers, mostly women, face time poverty and little respite. Measures must combine adequate pensions, home services and gender-equal family law.
Q5(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Bring out various factors responsible for declining of village Industries in India.
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Village industries declined through colonial competition, forest enclosure and the collapse of patronage. Post-independence mill goods, power-looms and plastics continued the squeeze. Credit, GST, and migration now pull youth out of hereditary crafts. Some clusters brand and survive; most artisan households enter informal labour. The process reorders caste occupations, not only GDP shares.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.