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India: 7 000 girls killed daily
12/12/2006 20:26 - (SA)
New Delhi - India is losing about 7 000 girls daily because of the traditional preference for sons, which causes many people to abort female foetuses, said Unicef on Tuesday.
"India is one of the few countries worldwide with an adverse child sex ratio in favour of boys," the United Nations (UN) children's agency said in its annual "State of the World's Children 2007" report.
"Nationwide, 7 000 fewer girls than expected are born each day, largely due to sex determination," said the report.
A study by British medical journal "The Lancet" said this year that India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts say the figure is not more than five million.
Under Indian law, tests to find out the gender of an unborn baby are illegal if not done for medical reasons, but the practice continues in what activists say is a flourishing multi-million-dollar business.
Northern Punjab state has one of the worst sex ratios in the country, with 798 girls for every 1 000 boys under the age of six.
Son-preference continues to persist
The national average is 927 - still well below the worldwide average of 1 050 female babies.
Unicef said there were fewer than 800 girls per 1 000 boys in 14 districts of Punjab and neighbouring Haryana, both of which are prosperous state.
Girls in India are often considered a liability, as parents have to put away large sums of money for dowries at the time of their marriage.
Many grooms demand dowry well beyond the means of the families of their spouse.
Centuries of tradition also demands that couples produce at least one male child to carry on the family name.
The UN agency said the practice was more rampant in affluent areas, because they provided better access to medical techniques to determine the gender of the foetus.
Girls continued to be neglected after birth because of a preference for sons, said Unicef.
"After birth, son-preference continues to persist, leading to the neglect of girls and their lack of access to nutrition, health and maternal care in the critical early years," said the report.
- AFP
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