46 million girls missing globally per and post natal sex selection

The UNPFA REPORT which came out on Tuesday says that 45.8 million of the world’s females are missing. Of this global figure, India accounted for 45.8 million missing females as of 2020 and China accounted for 72.3 million. The major reason for this has been sex selection by both pre-natal and post-natal ways. 

We live in a country where sex selection is the main thing as sons are preferred more than daughters which have led to excess female mortality rate. The report was examined because of the sex ratio imbalances at birth. A report by the UNPFA the world organization sexual and reproductive health agency said that the number of missing women has more than doubled over the past 50 years. Which were around 61 million in 1970 to a cumulative 142.6 million in the year 2020. 

There has been a comparison of the excess female deaths which shows that India has the highest rate of excess female deaths 13.5 per 1000 female births which are an estimate of one in nine deaths of females below the age of 5 due to post-natal sex selection. Whereas in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan excess female mortality below 5 years of age was under 3%. 

With the use of Ultrasound nowadays it has become easier today to know that the baby is a girl or boy. Hence it becomes an easy selection for people to abort a gild child in the womb. 

There is a system called “marriage squeeze” where the expected groom is more in number than the expected brides, the effect of this has been seen in some countries. The preference of male child in sex selection has led to dramatic, long -term shifts in the percentage of men and women population of some countries.

This imbalance will have a major effect in countries where marriage is universal, therefore the men will have to delay the marriage because of the unavailability to find a women partner for marriage. 

There has been an estimated average of a 5-year period which says 1.2 million female births are missing. In which India had about 4,60,000 girls missing at birth each year. 

The report said that this marriage squeezing might result in human trafficking for marriage and child marriages too. 

Some of the reports also show that the marriage squeeze will have its peak in 2055. The UN report also tells that the girls are subject to harmful physical and emotional practices with the full consent of their families in this. 

An analysis also states that if the countries remain closed for six months due to COVID-19, 13 million girls may be forced for marriages and 2 million girls, besides might be subject to female genital mutilation.

 

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