Question

In our society, women are often blamed for giving birth to daughters. Can you explain why this is not correct?

Answer 1

Hint: In the Indian society, females are prevalently blamed for giving birth to daughters. This is due to the lack of proper knowledge and education. The daughters are considered a liability. Several measures are adopted to prevent the birth of daughters that leads to a low sex-ratio.

Complete answer: Humans have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in a haploid set. Out of these twenty-three chromosomes, twenty-two is known as the allosomes or the non-sex chromosomes. These chromosomes are common in all humans whether they are male or female. The remaining pair of chromosomes are known as the sex chromosomes as they decide the sex of the person. The human females are homogametic. This means that they are made up of the same set of chromosomes. These chromosomes are denoted as XX. On the other hand, human males are heterogametic. This means that they are made up of two different types of chromosomes. These chromosomes are denoted as XY. When the male and the female gametes fuse then only one sex chromosome from each pair is inherited. Since the females are homogametic, they can only provide one type of chromosome i.e., X. But the males can provide two different types of chromosomes as they are heterogametic. The chromosome provided by them decides the sex of the baby. If the chromosome is X so it’s a girl and if the chromosome is Y then it’s a boy. Therefore, the sex of the baby is determined by the male chromosome.

Note: The determination of the sex of the fetus is banned in our country. This is because of the increase in the number of female foeticide cases. Therefore, the government has banned the determination of sex before birth. Moreover, several laws have been formed to regulate abortions.