A study of the declining sex ratio in India particularly in the 0 to 6 age group
raises one very pertinent question: Where have all the girls gone? The
phenomenon has become particularly disturbing in some northern states of India. It
appears that the growth in incomes and education of women, variables that would
grant women an equal status in society, have actually worked in a reverse direction
in states like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Discrimination against females
is engineered even before birth through female foeticide. It seems that education
and incomes, which were supposed to result in the emancipation of women, have
actually increased, not lowered, the bias in favour of the male child.
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