Missing girls and son preference in rural India: looking beyond popular myth
Bandyopadhyay, M.
Health Care for Women International 24(10): 910-926
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 0739-9332 PMID: 14742129 DOI: 10.1080/07399330390244220Document Number: 685531
Survival chances of girls in parts of South and East Asia have been adverse. Female foeticide, infanticide, abandonment, out-adoption, under-reporting of female births, and selective neglect of girls leading to higher death rates, have contributed to this adversity. Here, I reflect on an observed skewed sex ratio at birth in rural West Bengal, and discuss female foeticide, infanticide, son preference, and abortion. More boys were recorded at birth, and the majority of women desired sons. Trajectories of selective neglect of and discrimination against daughters have been researched extensively, but the related issues of female foeticide and infanticide have been less examined.