46 million girls went missing in India-THE HINDU-01-07-2020

Context: The UNFPA has released State of the World Population 2020 report.

Details:

*The Preference for sons and gender-biased sex selection have led to over 142 million girls missing globally and 46 million girls missing in India,One in three girls missing globally due to sex selection in india .

*The figure shows the number of missing women has more than doubled over the past 50 years, who were at 61 million in 1970. With the advent of technology and increased access to ultrasound imaging, the number of girls missing due to female foeticide has exceeded those that were missing because of postnatal sex selection.

*Gender-biased sex selection tends to be higher among wealthy families but percolates down to lower-income families over time, as sex selection technologies become more accessible and affordable.

*The same study shows that in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan excess female mortality of girls below 5 years of age was under 3 per cent. This resulted in the number of girls missing due to female foeticide exceeding those that were missing because of postnatal sex selection.

* According to estimates averaged over a five year period , annually, there were 1.2 million missing female births, at a global level. India had about 4,60,000 girls ‘missing’ at birth each year.

*China (50%) and India (40%) together account for around 90% of the estimated 1.2 million girls lost annually to female foeticide.

*The sex ratio at birth in India is 899 girls for every 1,000 boys born during the period 2016-18, according to the Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2018.

*Nine states in the country have sex ratio at birth below 900 which are Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar.

*In India, Covid-19 has reduced access to contraception and abortion services, which is likely to lead to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The first four months of Covid-19, we estimate that access to 1.85 million abortions was compromised.

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Paper- GS-02

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

Prelims: Indian Society, Social/Welfare issue