Indian YouTuber’s gender reveal party, vlog land him in legal trouble

A vlog following the gender reveal fad of the West for an unborn child became a matter of legal trouble for a popular Indian food vlogger from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The sex determination of an unborn child is a penal offence in India.

It all happened when popular Tamil Nadu food vlogger Irfan revealed the gender of his unborn child on social media.

The gender reveal party organised by the soon-to-be father has led to legal action against him by Tamil Nadu health department for violating the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act also called the Prohibition of Sex Selection Act.

The video posted on May 18 shows the vlogger and his wife undergoing a sex determination test at a hospital in Dubai. The video shows their visit to the hospital on May 2 and later shows them hosting a 'gender reveal' party in Chennai.

Irfan points out in the video that while sex determination tests are illegal in India, they are permitted in many other countries, including in the United Arab Emirates.

The gender reveal party, andthe couple's Dubai trip, were documented in vlogs on his YouTube channel, which boasts 4.28 million subscribers.

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The gender reveal video alone attracted over 2 million views, while the Dubai trip vlog garnered approximately 1.1 million views.

In India, Prohibition of Sex Selection Act forbids the use of any method to determine a foetus's gender once it is conceived. The law acts as a deterrent to prevent female foeticide, the practice of aborting a female foetus after determining its sex through a prenatal diagnostic test. While abortion is legal in India, there are strict penalties of those aborting female foetuses following the sex determination. According to a Pew Research Center study, at least 9 million female foetuses were aborted in India between 2000 and 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)