Missing Girls

The 2011 census found 914 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6. Worldwide the distribution is 986 girls for 1,000 boys. With 774 girls to 1,000 boys, Haryana has the worst gender disparity.

The head of India’s census agency said the gender disparity, which was earlier pronounced in Northern states, has now spread throughout the country.

Ranjana Kumari, head of the Centre for Social Research, told the BBC, “It’s almost like first step toward eradication of humanity itself — because if there are no mothers, there’ll be no children, and there is going to be nobody ever born.”

Demographers estimate that 600,000 girls go “missing” in India every year, primarily because of pervasive sex selection practices and infanticide, accounting for the disparity

Union Minister Farooq Abdullah cautioned, “The day is not far when there will be no girls to marry and we’ll all become gays. That might happen.”