Knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant women on gender preference, prenatal sex determination and female feticide
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20170892Keywords:
Attitude and practice, Female feticide, Gender preference, Knowledge, Prenatal sex determinationAbstract
Background: Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males. The objectives were to study the knowledge, attitude and the practice of pregnant women on gender preference, prenatal sex determination and female feticide.
Methods: It was a hospital based cross-sectional study. The present study was undertaken among the 204 newly registered pregnant women attending the hospital in Marh block of Jammu district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. A pre-designed, pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used in the study. The data collection technique was a personnel interview of the study subjects.
Results: The mean age of study subjects was 25.39±3.6 years. A majority (75.5%) of the pregnant women did not show any gender preference, followed by male preference (13.73%) and female preference (10.78%). Only 70.59% and 67.65%, of the total subjects were aware that prenatal sex determination and female feticide are illegal, respectively. Awareness regarding prenatal sex determination and female feticide increased with the level of education.
Conclusions: There is a need to educate pregnant women about the impact of negative sex ratio on the society and about the penalization for violation of the PCPNDT act.References
Census of India. Gender composition. Available at http:// censusindia.gov.in/ census_And_You/ gender_composition.aspx. Accessed on 21 January 2017.
Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Population in age group 0-6 years by sex and sex ratio (0-6). Available at: http:// www.censusindia.gov.in /2011-prov-results/ indiaatg lance.html. Accessed on 21 January 2017.
Kanitkar T, Mistry M. Status of women in India-an interstate comparison. Indian J Soc Work. 2000;61:381-3.
Vadera BN, Joshi UK, Unadakat SV, Yadav BS, Yadav S. Study on knowledge, attitude and practices regarding gender preference and female feticide among pregnant women. Indian J Comm Med. 2007;32:300-1.
Kansal R, Maroof KA, Bansal R, Parashar P. A hospital based study on knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant women on gender preference, prenatal sex determination and female feticide. Indian J Public Health. 2010;54:209-12.
Bhaktwani A. The PC-PNDT act in nutshell. Indian J Radiol Imaging. 2012;22(2):133-4.
Puri S, Bhatia V, Swami HM. Gender preference and awareness regarding sex determination among married women in slums of Chandigarh. Indian J Comm Med. 2007;32:60-2.
Sharmila V, Babu TA, Singh D. Knowledge, awareness and attitude about prenatal sex determination, pre- conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques act among pregnant women in the South Indian union territory of Puducherry. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol. 2016;5:3470-4.
