process of adopting children and the legal obligation to provide "maintenance" for other family members immoral traffic prevention act 1986 stops sex trafficking and exploitation equal remuneration act 1976 prevents monetary discrimination between men and women in the workforce female infanticide act 1870 prevents female infanticide (act passed in british india) ban on ultrasound testing 1996 bans prenatal sex determination source: central and state government schemes to alleviate female foeticide and child mortality other recent policy initiatives adopted by many states of india, claims guilmoto, attempt to address the assumed economic disadvantage of girls by offering support to girls and their parents. these policies provide conditional cash transfer and scholarships only available to girls, where payments to a girl and her parents are linked to each stage of her life, such as when she is born, completion of her childhood immunization, her joining school at grade 1, her completing school grades 6, 9 and 12, her marriage past age 21. some states are offering higher pension benefits to parents who raise one or two girls. different states of india have been experimenting with various innovations in their girl-driven welfare policies. for example, the state of delhi adopted a pro-girl policy initiative (locally called laadli scheme), which initial data suggests may be lowering the birth sex ratio in the state. these types of government programs and schemes are a type of redistribution in an attempt to further development in the country. the central and state governments in india have noticed the country's failure to deal with female foeticide on its own and have come up with programs to deal with the problem at hand. a serious flaw that makes all of these programs ineffective is that they target only lower-income households, while ignoring the population of higher-income households also partaking in female foeticide. sex determination tests and sex selective abortions are prevalent more amongst affluent families. for example, upper-class families in haryana have high rates of foeticide and infanticide and the programs do not target these families. a study in haryana found that the sex ratio at birth for upper caste women was 127 males for 100 females, compared with 105 with lower caste women. while cash transfers successfully improve school enrollment and immunization rates for girls, they do not directly address parent's demand for sons and gender-biased sex selection. additionally, a study conducted by bijayalaxmi nanda, an associate professor of political science at delhi university, found that many of the beneficiaries of the delhi ladli scheme wanted to use the money received for marriage rather than educational expenses. another problem with these government conditional cash transfers is that many of them only target the first two daughters in a family and have no incentive for families to have more than two daughters. these non-linear incentive models do not result in the same increase in benefits as the inputs and cash transfers put in by the government. additionally, they only incentivize a change in behavior until an age, educational, number of daughters threshold and do not prompt people to act beyond these guidelines. select schemes by the central and state governments program year passed central or state government benefits balika samriddhi yojana 1997 central government cash transfer to mother based on child meeting educational conditions and partaking in income generating activities dhan laxmi scheme 2008 central government cash transfers to family after meeting conditions (immunization, education, insurance) kanya jagriti jyoti scheme 1996 punjab cash transfers to 2 girl children in a family after meeting conditions (immunization, education, insurance) beti bachao, beti padhao yojana 2015 central government cash transfers based on educational attainment national plan of action 1992 central government for the survival, protection, and development of girl children. goals include ending female feticide, reducing gender disparity, and giving girls better access to resources devirupak 2002 haryana cash transfer to couple accepting terminal method of family planning (vasectomy, tubectomy) after birth of 1st or 2nd child delhi ladli scheme 2008 delhi cash transfer based on educational attainment for first 2 daughters apni beti apna dhan 1994 haryana cash transfer if daughter reaches the age of 18 without being married girl child protection scheme 2005 andhra pradesh cash transfer based on age and educational attainment. family also has to partake in family planning beti hai anmol scheme 2010 himachal pradesh interest earned on back account in daughter's name and cash scholarships for each year of school bhagya laxmi scheme 2007 karnataka cash transfer based on age and educational attainment. cash provided to families for natural death, health insurance, and scholarships mukhyamantri kanya suraksha yojna and mukhyamantri kanya vivah yojna 2008 bihar cash transfers to poor families with two daughters indra gandhi balika suraksha yojana 2007 himachal pradesh cash transfers based on age attainment ladli laxami yojna 2006 madhya pradesh, jharkhand cash transfers based on educational attainment rakshak yojana 2005 punjab cash monthly transfers for families with 2 girls mukhyamantri kanyadan yojna 2017 madhya pradesh cash transfer for marriage assistance if the family waits until the legal age to marry off their daughter sukanya samriddhi account 2015 central government interest earned on bank account opened for daughter after she turns 21 source: responds by others increasing awareness of the problem has led to multiple campaigns by celebrities and journalists to combat sex-selective abortions. aamir khan devoted the first episode "daughters are precious" of his show satyamev jayate to raise awareness of this widespread practice, focusing primarily on western rajasthan, which is known to be one of the areas where this practice is common. its sex ratio dropped to 883 girls per 1,000 boys in 2011 from 901 girls to 1000 boys in 2001. rapid response was shown by local government in rajasthan after the airing of this show, showing the effect of media and nationwide awareness on the issue. a vow was made by officials to set up fast-track courts to punish those who practice sex-based abortion. they cancelled the licences of six sonography centres and issued notices to over 20 others. this has been done on the smaller scale. cultural intervention has been addressed through theatre. plays such as 'pacha mannu', which is about female infanticide/foeticide, has been produced by a women's theatre group in tamil nadu. this play was showing mostly in communities that practice female infanticide/foeticide and has led to a redefinition of a methodology of consciousness raising, opening up varied ways of understanding and subverting cultural expressions. the mumbai high court ruled that prenatal sex determination implied female foeticide. sex determination violated a woman's right to live and was against india's constitution. the beti bachao, or save girls campaign, has been underway in many indian communities since the early 2000s. the campaign uses the media to raise awareness of the gender disparities creating, and resulting from, sex-selective abortion. beti bachao activities include rallies, posters, short videos and television commercials, some of which are sponsored by state and local governments and other organisations. many celebrities in india have publicly supported the beti bachao campaign.