Search engines must comply

India’s relations with global companies of the new economy like social media platforms and those running search engines may be filled with tension. However, there is one case in which India speaks with righteous indignation and that is about the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo carrying advertisements for prenatal sex diagnosis tests that are cleverly aimed at Indians. The Supreme Court’s order to web search engines to help observe the letter and spirit of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act is quite understandable in view of the difficulties the country has been facing in a male-dominant society that thinks nothing of female foeticide.

There may be various other issues concerning global companies which are clouded by a clash of perceptions regarding liberty and the right to privacy, etc., but in this matter, India’s aims are specifically aimed at containing a national, societal problem. Blocking the common key sentences coming up in the search of such clinics offering sex diagnosis tests as well as giving cues to clients towards illegal abortions should be a simple task.

The skewed sex ratio of the country is worst represented in Haryana which has a child sex ratio of 834 girls to 1,000 boys and 879 females to 1,000 males, according to 2011 census. There are seven other states that rank poorly in child sex ratio with figures under 900 like Punjab (846), J&K (862), Delhi (871), Chandigarh (880), Rajasthan (888), Gujarat (890) and Maharashtra (894) as compared to the national average of 943 females to 1,000 males. Surely, this is of great concern to the country and the least the global tech giants can do is understand the problem and fall in line to cut nefarious sex determination activities and abortions.