An Indian court has sentenced a doctor and his assistant to two years in prison for administering a test to determine the sex of an unborn baby.
They are believed to be the first to be jailed under a law that bans pre-natal sex determination tests.
A court in the town of Palwal, about 135 kilometers south of the capital New Delhi based its verdict, in part, on a secretly recorded video, in which the doctor offers the mother an abortion because she was carrying a female fetus.
India outlawed such sex determination tests in 1994. However, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of unborn girls are still illegally aborted every year.
Preference for boys in India is generally thought to be a result of the dowry system, in which a bride's family transfers large sums of money to the groom's parents. Dowry payments are technically illegal, but the custom persists in rural areas of the country.
They are believed to be the first to be jailed under a law that bans pre-natal sex determination tests.
A court in the town of Palwal, about 135 kilometers south of the capital New Delhi based its verdict, in part, on a secretly recorded video, in which the doctor offers the mother an abortion because she was carrying a female fetus.
India outlawed such sex determination tests in 1994. However, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of unborn girls are still illegally aborted every year.
Preference for boys in India is generally thought to be a result of the dowry system, in which a bride's family transfers large sums of money to the groom's parents. Dowry payments are technically illegal, but the custom persists in rural areas of the country.