Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Indian women in UK aborting daughters

Indian women in the UK are aborting daughters in order to have more boys, an Oxford University study has found. The research indicates that 1,500 girls have gone 'missing' from the birth statistics in England and Wales since 1990. Dr Sylvie Dubuc, who studies human geography and population at Oxford University, studied birth rates of different ethnic groups in England and Wales, and was surprised by what she found "According to my calculation, around 1,500 girls are missing. It's significant compared to the total number of births," she said.

Dr Dubuc found that the proportion of boys over girls has increased over time abnormally. The most probable explanation, she said, seemed to be sex selective abortion by a minority of mothers born in India.

According to a BBC report, it was not just women born in India who were prepared to go to extremes to ensure they have a male heir, even British women following in the footsteps of their Indian counterparts. BBC claims an estimated seven million girls have gone missing from India's population over the last 25 years. Selective abortion is happening all over India as ultrasound machines have become cheaper, but it has always been worst in Punjab and Gujarat.



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