Gender Imbalances and Female Foeticide

In 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a wide-sweeping reform and economic growth plan to address female foeticide in India under a campaign called, “Educate the Girl, Save the Girl”.  Through the empowerment of women, Prime Minister Modi sought to stop female feoticide, a practice which has grown in India over the last few decades as fetus imaging technology to confirm the gender of the fetus has developed and become more broadly available. As a result, while the overall ratio of females to males (feminity ratio) in India has gradually improved, the ratio among newborn babies has deteriorated.

• In the mid-1970s, the ratio of newborn girls to boys was about 94 per 100; recent data show it is now 90 per 100, elevating the issue to what the United Nations calls "emergency proportions."
• According to some studies, about 2,000 girls are killed every day in India, either by abortion or immediately after birth.

Gender imbalances differ around the world, in some cases forced through female foeticide and other cases natural or other social factors have led to sustained imbalances.

• Female foeticide practices continue not only in India, but also in China and some other developing Southern Asian nations. For additional information about the so-called "missing women of Asia," review the works of Amartya Sen, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.
• In the ex-USSR territories, while the feminity ratio among newborns is close to normal,  the same ratio among the total population is remarkably high due to higher male mortality rates and lower life expectancy.
• In several countries Middle Eastern countries, especially Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), gender imbalances exist primarily among older age groups and are skewed toward more men than women. For example, the UAE reported 97 girls per 100 boys in the 0-1 year age group but 44 women to 100 men in older age groups.