India Is Missing 10 Million Daughters

(image from natalie dee)

India is missing about 10 million daughters since the widespread use of ultrasound, estimates a new study.
Over the last 20 years, about 10 million female fetuses may have been selectively aborted following ultrasound results in India, suggest Prabhat Jha at the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
Their study of 1.1 million households across India reveals that in 1997, far fewer girls were born to couples if their preceding child or children were also female. "There was about a 30% gap in second females following the birth of any earlier females," Jha told New Scientist.
"Female infanticide of the past is refined and honed to a fine skill in this modern guise," says Shiresh Sheth of the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, India, in a commentary accompanying the study in The Lancet.
Sheth notes that in India's patriarchal society, daughters are regarded as a "liability", as she will belong to the family of her future husband.