PRIYANKA KHANNA, New Delhi, March 30, 2001: There is little place for the girl child given Indian society’s strongly ingrained preference for sons. The ratio of girls per 1,000 boys in the age group of 0 to 6-year-old has declined from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. The shocking studies reported in this article show that out of every 1,000 fetuses that are aborted, 995 are female, often identified through ultrasound scans. Other reasons for the ratio are cited as well. The unnatural ratio is seen in the total population, where there are 933 females to 1000 males in India altogether, but 1,054 women — biologically the stronger sex — to 1,000 men in America and 1,064 women to 1,000 men in Europe. China, also with a preference for sons, shows a similar shortage of women as does India.
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