Not a single girl has been born in a district of Uttarakhand in northern India since April, while 216 newborn boys have been recorded.
Authorities suspect that sex-selective terminations have been carried out in as many as 132 villages in the region.
Abortion by gender was banned in India 25 years ago, following a growing problem with mistreatment towards girls – with many being abandoned, starved and killed at birth.
Anushree Bernard from the Vanishing Girls campaign by religious freedom charity ADF International – which works to end the practise of aborting girls in the womb – told Premier the number of girls being born in India has been decreasing for many years: “The last census that was conducted in the year 2011 in India, there was a complete drastic decline in the child sex ratio between the age group of zero to six years in India, with only 918 girls for every thousand boys.”
Ms Bernard said that many parents chose to abort girls because of the potential financial pressures they can bring.
Sons are favoured in the culture as traditionally they are expected to provide economic stability for the family, whilst women are given in marriage and a dowry payment is required.
She explained: “When a girl gets married, the girl’s family has to pay a certain amount as gifts to the son in law in return for the marriage. The fathers always have this thought in the back…
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