Indian girl-boy ratios at ‘all-time low’: British charity
22/6/08
The number of girls to boys in India has hit a record low, British charity ActionAid said Saturday as it urged the government in New Delhi to take “sustained action” to prevent a lost generation of women. “In a country with a long history of discrimination against women, the preference for sons over daughters has led to the number of girls under the age of six hitting an all-time low,” said ActionAid in a report. Ratios of boys to girls aged 0-6 in sites in four out of five states it studied in north and northwest India were now lower than at the time of the last nationwide census in 2001 - and the gap was widening, the report said. Both rural and urban areas showed similar declines and the phenomenon cut across class and wealth lines, added the report, which is titled “Disappearing Daughters”.