BANGALORE: Despite improvement in literacy rate, there is little progress as far as child sex ratio is concerned in India. A study conducted by the Centre for Global Health Research and University of Toronto, reveals that Indians have aborted 12 million girl foetuses in past three decades, of which, six lakh were between 2001 and 2011.However, the study conducted by Prof Prabhat Jha, Director, Centre for Global Health Research, also has good news for Karnataka which has fairly improved and the child sex ratio has declined modestly in the state. The 2011 census reveals that child sex ratio in state stands at 943:1000, compared to the India rate of 914:1000.“The state has 33.27 lakh girls compared to 35.28 lakh boys in age group of 0 to 6 years in 2011. This shows that there is a gap of 2 lakh and at least 15,000 girls are selectively aborted in Karnataka every year,” said Prof Prabhat Jha who was speaking at a discussion at St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences on Friday.He also maintained that selective abortion of girls has increased in India in the past two decades. The reason attributed for about 10 lakh children both girls and boys death in India within one month of life was due to neonatal infection, low birth weight, prematurity, birth trauma, pneumonia and diarrhoea.“While fertility has fallen substantially, Indians’ preference for sons has not changed. As income and education levels rise, more Indian households can act on their son preference and sex selective abortion has spread widely. Today, most Indians live in a community were selective abortion of girls is common,” said Jha.He also maintained that unlike Western countries which provide social security system for old people that does not put them to poverty, in India, aged people are deprived of such system and consequently the parents dependency on son is still prevalent.Besides, the misuse of technology was also discussed in the panel discussion.
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