What Can We Do to Stop Female Infanticide? A Step-by-Step Guide for Change-Makers

• Deepak
• 03 May, 2025
• 5Mins

Introduction

Female infanticide is a brutal outcome of gender discrimination that continues to rob thousands of baby girls of their right to live. It reflects deep-rooted cultural and economic biases, especially in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Despite legal protections like the PCPNDT Act, enforcement remains weak. At Senemi Foundation, one of the most trusted NGOs in India, we fight this injustice through awareness, advocacy, and grassroots education. From Haridwar to Dehradun, we work daily to empower communities. This blog offers a step-by-step guide on how to stop female infanticide in India—and how you can help.

Understanding the Causes of Female Infanticide in India

The practice of female infanticide in India cannot be understood in isolation; it is deeply rooted in centuries of patriarchal norms, misguided traditions, and systemic socio-economic disadvantages. While female feticide and infanticide differ in method, they share the same cause—devaluation of the girl child.

Social and Cultural Reasons for Female Infanticide

Among the most cited reasons for female infanticide is the entrenched belief that sons are the rightful carriers of family lineage, while daughters are seen as outsiders who eventually leave the home. This is particularly prevalent in rural regions of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where community influence and cultural conditioning override education and modern law. The cultural preference for sons, reinforced by generational biases, leads families to view daughters as dispensable.

At Senemi Foundation, we've found that in villages like Saharanpur, Haldwani, and Roorkee, mothers themselves—often under pressure—become victims and perpetrators of this cycle. This is why sensitization workshops for villagers and community-based awareness programs are central to our strategy.

Economic and Educational Triggers

Poverty and lack of access to education are other major causes of female infanticide. When parents face financial constraints, educating a girl becomes a secondary priority. In communities plagued by poor girl education, daughters are seen as liabilities, especially when dowry expectations are involved. This economic burden has led many to ask, "Who can help stop female infanticide?"

Education plays a pivotal role in disrupting this pattern. As part of our outreach, Senemi Foundation partners with girl education NGOs in Varanasi and Lucknow to promote schooling for girls and reduce the financial insecurities that push families toward female infanticide.

The sex ratio imbalance in India is a stark consequence of these causes, and without strong community interventions, this imbalance threatens not only the lives of girls but the stability of society itself.

Legal Framework: Laws Against Female Infanticide in India

While society often fails the girl child, the law stands firm against the practice of female infanticide in India. Unfortunately, the real issue lies not in the absence of legislation but in weak enforcement, lack of awareness, and societal silence that surrounds this crime.

Female Infanticide Comes Under Section 302 IPC

According to Indian law, female infanticide comes under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with murder. The act of deliberately killing a newborn girl—whether by drowning, suffocation, or poisoning—is legally considered homicide. However, convictions remain rare because such acts are often hidden by families and covered up as stillbirths. In many rural parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, law enforcement struggles with gathering evidence due to societal collusion.

Adding to this legal network is the PCPNDT Act (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act), which prohibits prenatal sex determination. This law is designed to prevent female feticide, which is the selective abortion of female fetuses. But despite the act’s presence, illegal ultrasounds and backdoor abortions continue in villages and small towns where monitoring is weak. This is why the PCPNDT Act enforcement must go hand-in-hand with community education and public pressure.

What Is the Female Infanticide Act?

There is no singular statute titled the Female Infanticide Act, but the term collectively refers to various provisions in the IPC, the Juvenile Justice Act, and child protection laws that criminalize the murder and neglect of girl children. The meaning of female infanticide in this legal context extends to any action or inaction that results in the death of a girl child, either at birth or shortly after.

Senemi Foundation, often recognized as the most trusted NGO in India, plays an active role in not just spreading awareness about these laws but also assisting in filing complaints, conducting legal workshops in Meerut, Haridwar, and Dehradun, and working with authorities to strengthen accountability.

NGO Action and Community Engagement: The Heart of Change

While laws provide the structure to combat female infanticide, it is the persistent effort of NGOs and local communities that gives these laws life on the ground. In regions like rural Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where social evils are often normalized, NGOs become the first line of resistance against gender-based violence and neglect.

Role of NGOs in Stopping Female Infanticide

The role of NGOs in stopping female infanticide is multi-layered. It begins with awareness—educating families about the value of the girl child and the legal consequences of her harm. Senemi Foundation has been at the forefront of this mission, especially in areas like Saharanpur, Lucknow, and Roorkee, where female births were once seen as a curse. Through door-to-door campaigns, street plays, and school sessions, we have changed thousands of minds and saved countless lives.

Our work does not stop at education. We provide support systems—connecting families to government schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, offering scholarships for girls, and facilitating access to health care. In many villages, Senemi teams work alongside local ASHA workers to ensure every birth is registered and monitored to prevent female feticide and infanticide.

How Can Community Stop Female Infanticide?

When you ask, how can community stop female infanticide, the answer lies in unity, awareness, and moral courage. In Haridwar and Haldwani, we’ve seen how local panchayats, when sensitized, can become powerful allies. Sensitization programs in rural Uttarakhand led by Senemi have empowered local women’s groups to speak out and intervene when a girl child is in danger.

Building a safe society for girls requires village-level awareness campaigns that promote girl child empowerment, challenge gender discrimination in India, and push back against harmful customs. With community volunteers trained in child rights, we ensure early intervention when families express distress over the birth of a girl. This grassroots approach has been crucial in reducing infanticide cases in districts we serve.

Sustainable Solutions to Stop Female Infanticide in Villages

Ending female infanticide in deeply rooted communities of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand requires more than just slogans—it requires structured, sustainable, and community-led action. By addressing root causes such as poverty, ignorance, and patriarchal beliefs, long-term change can be initiated at the village level.

Female Infanticide Solutions in Villages

Female infanticide solutions in villages must involve consistent awareness drives, economic support for families, and reliable education initiatives for girls. In our work across Varanasi, Dehradun, and Meerut, Senemi Foundation has implemented multi-level interventions tailored to specific village needs. We believe that empowerment starts when families are equipped with both knowledge and resources.

Here is a comparative table outlining effective village-level interventions that Senemi Foundation has used in its campaigns:

These initiatives are not one-time events. They are part of a long-term strategy that includes follow-ups, family counseling, and school-level interventions to address poor girl education and build resilience within communities.

How to Raise Awareness About Girl Child Rights

One of the most powerful tools in our fight is raising awareness about girl child rights. People in rural regions often aren’t even aware that female infanticide comes under section 302 IPC. Through interactive sessions, posters, school plays, and local festivals, we inform communities that a girl child has equal legal and moral value. Our community programs in Haridwar for girl child welfare have shown how awareness can lead to direct behavioral change.

The Far-Reaching Impact of Female Infanticide on Society

The act of female infanticide does not end with the death of a child—it echoes through generations, affecting the psychological well-being of families, distorting societal structures, and shaking the foundations of a just and equal nation. Understanding what is the impact of female infanticide in society is critical for anyone seeking to become a change-maker.

Social Consequences and Gender Imbalance

Perhaps the most alarming outcome of female infanticide in India is the sex ratio imbalance. Census reports and local health data from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand reveal a sharp decline in the number of females per 1,000 males in several districts, particularly in rural belts of Meerut, Roorkee, and Haridwar. This imbalance has led to a rise in forced marriages, bride trafficking, and gender-based violence, which further fuels the cycle of abuse and inequality.

The gender discrimination in India that leads to infanticide also manifests in social attitudes that normalize the devaluation of women. When a society systematically chooses to eliminate its girls, it sends a message that female lives are less valuable. This message affects not just families, but the nation’s psyche and identity.

Psychological Toll on Families and Mothers

The psychological scars of female feticide and infanticide often remain hidden but run deep. Many mothers are forced into committing or witnessing the death of their newborn daughters. In our grassroots work in rural Dehradun and Saharanpur, Senemi Foundation has encountered cases where women suffer from long-term depression, trauma, and guilt due to societal pressure and lack of choice.

These women often live in silence, carrying invisible grief. Our community counselors offer mental health support through village health programs, emphasizing the emotional cost of social evils against women. When people understand the suffering caused not only to the girl child but also to her mother and family, it becomes easier to foster empathy and drive meaningful change.

The impact of female infanticide is not confined to numbers. It’s about lives lost, families broken, and justice denied. A society that kills its daughters is one that destroys its future from within.

Government Action and Policy Advocacy: Bridging the Gap Between Law and Lives

In the fight against female infanticide, the government plays a crucial role in creating, funding, and monitoring large-scale initiatives that aim to shift societal attitudes and provide tangible support to vulnerable families. Yet, many still ask, what is the government doing to stop female infanticide? The answer lies in a mix of national programs, state schemes, and strategic collaboration with child protection NGOs like Senemi Foundation.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: Promise and Practice

One of the flagship programs designed to combat female feticide and infanticide is Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), launched in 2015 by the Government of India. The initiative focuses on changing mindsets through mass awareness campaigns, improving female child education rates, and enforcing laws against prenatal sex selection.

In districts like Haridwar, Dehradun, and Lucknow, where Senemi Foundation actively operates, the implementation of BBBP has been a mixed story. While the campaigns have brought national attention to the issue, the challenge lies in localized execution. Awareness banners are not enough—what’s needed is grassroots enforcement and emotional engagement, which community programs in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand can uniquely deliver.

Our field teams work directly with district administrations to ensure that schemes under BBBP reach the intended beneficiaries. This includes financial aid for the girl child, vocational training, and registration drives to reduce unreported births and deaths. However, there’s still a long road ahead, especially in remote rural pockets.

Beyond Policy: How Advocacy Makes a Difference

Policy alone cannot end female infanticide in India. Advocacy must follow. Through policy advocacy, NGOs and activists push for stronger monitoring of the PCPNDT Act, harsher penalties for violators, and inclusion of gender sensitivity in school curriculums. Senemi Foundation regularly drafts reports, organizes roundtables with local leaders, and submits memorandums to ensure that the voice of the girl child reaches legislative ears.

By combining top-down government initiatives with bottom-up NGO action, we begin to see real change. Every girl saved, every family educated, every birth celebrated is a direct result of this collaborative approach. Together, policy and advocacy are not just complementary—they are inseparable in the mission to end female infanticide.

Becoming a Change-Maker: How You Can Help Stop Female Infanticide

The fight against female infanticide is not just the responsibility of governments or NGOs—it belongs to every citizen who believes in equality, dignity, and the right to life. If you’re wondering who can help stop female infanticide, the answer is simple: you can. Each of us has the power to intervene, influence, and inspire change in our own circles and communities.

Join the Mission with the Most Trusted NGO in India

At Senemi Foundation, we are proud to be known as one of the most trusted NGOs in India dedicated to girl child empowerment. Our work across Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has shown us that the tide can turn—but only when good people stand up against injustice.

You can support our mission in multiple ways. Volunteer your time in awareness camps, help us conduct sensitization workshops for villagers, or sponsor the education of a girl child in rural UP or UK. Even a single act—like reporting an illegal sex-determination clinic—can be the difference between life and death for an unborn girl. Every voice counts in this movement, and every helping hand makes our reach stronger.

Empowering Girls Means Saving a Nation’s Future

When you support the prevention of female infanticide, you’re not just saving a child—you’re protecting an entire future. Empowered girls become educated women, responsible mothers, economic contributors, and change agents. Stopping female infanticide in India means disrupting the cycle of gender discrimination, improving poor girl education, and securing the demographic stability of our country.

Through community engagement in Roorkee, Meerut, Varanasi, and other regions, Senemi Foundation has proven that empowerment works. We invite every reader to be a part of this transformation—because real change does not come from outrage alone; it comes from consistent, courageous action.

This is your call. Stand with us. Speak out. Educate one. Save many. Let us ensure that no more daughters are silenced before their first cry. Together, we can and must end female infanticide—not tomorrow, but now.

Wrapping Up

At Senemi Foundation, we believe that every girl child deserves not just to be born, but to be celebrated, educated, and empowered. As the most trusted NGO in India working on the ground in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, we are committed to ending female infanticide through grassroots action, policy advocacy, and community transformation. Our mission is fueled by compassion, strengthened by volunteers, and sustained by individuals like you who believe in equality and justice. Whether it's conducting awareness drives, supporting education, or providing legal aid to vulnerable families, our initiatives are designed to create real, lasting change. But we can't do it alone. Join us—be it as a volunteer, donor, or advocate—and help us build a future where every girl is safe, valued, and free. Because when we save a girl, we save generations. Together, let's rise against female infanticide and rewrite India's future.