As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, the United Nations launched a global campaign for elimination of gender-based violence. The objective was to influence public opinion and attitudes, policies, practices and legislation to facilitate a violence-free life for women. Female foeticide is one extreme manifestation of violence against women – a social problem that is now spreading unchecked across the country. Female foetuses are selectively aborted after pre-natal sex determination, thus denying girls a 'Right to Life' which is the first right given to all children by the UN Rights of the child 1989. In India where female infanticide has existed for centuries, now female foeticide is on an upswing. The reasons for this evil are the introduction and proliferation of pre-natal diagnostic test / sex determination clinics and cheaper ultra-sound machines that help determine the sex of a child inside the womb. The dramatic reduction of birth rates of the girl child in most states of India is because of a preference given to a male child in the existing patriarchal society. It is also due to lack of principles and ethics in the medical profession that has resulted in escalation of this social problem. This is not a unique sociological phenomenon confined to a particular state; in fact, the trend is catching up all over the country; even in diverse cultural contexts where there has been relative greater gender equality – for example, Uttaranchal.