PC&PNDT Act in the Digital Age:
The fight against sex-selective abortion in India has moved online, where influencers and self-styled doctors circumvent the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDT Act) by promoting unscientific gender-prediction myths to vast audiences.The internalised bias for sons has renewed focus on gender bias, digital regulation, and reproductive rights. It was enacted in 1994 to address the issue of female foeticide and the declining child sex ratio resulting from the misuse of diagnostic technologies for sex selection. (India’s sex ratio as per 1991 Population Census – 929 females per 1,000 males).The Act was significantly amended in 2003 to strengthen its provisions, explicitly include pre-conception techniques, and prohibit sex selection more comprehensively.
