Chennai: A recently released United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report has said nearly 4.6 crore (45.8 million) females are ‘missing’ in Indian demography in the year 2020, mainly due to pre and post-birth sex selection practices stemming from son preference and gender inequality.
Themed ‘Against My Will ā Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality’, the UNFPA State of World Population Report has described ‘missing females’ as those whose numbers are reflected in sex-ratio imbalances at birth as result of gender-biased (pre-natal) sex selection, combined with excess female mortality stemming from post-natal sex-selection.
India accounts for almost one-third (32.1 per cent) of the total 142.6 million missing females in the world and is the second highest contributor. The biggest contributor is China at 72.3 million (7.2 crore) ‘missing females’ that is 50.7 per cent of all missing females in the world.
The report has described ‘missing females’ as those whose numbers are reflected in sex-ratio imbalances at birth as result of gender-biased (pre-natal) sex selection, combined with excess female mortality stemming from post-natal sex-selection.