3 Million Girls in India Gone Missing In a Decade

The world celebrates the “International Day of the Girl Child”, but India doesn't seem to be the best place for a girl child. Three million girl children have gone missing in 2011 in comparison to 2001 says a "Children in India 2012-A Statistical Appraisal" report.

Studies earlier have said that 2,000 girls a day or five-lakh girls a year go missing in India due to female feticide, reported Kounteya Sinha for TNN. In families, where one girl child already lives, the chance of a second girl being born is as low as 54 percent. Further, in a family with two female children, the chances of a third girl being born is as small as 20 percent.

As per the ministry while the size of child population in the age group (0-6 years) is waning, the share of girls in 0-6 age bracket is reducing at a faster pace than that of boys in the same age group. Currently, there are 48 fewer girls per 1,000 boys than in 1981.

Even in terms of infant mortality rate (IMR), there has been a decline for males from 78 in 1990 to 46 in 2010 and for females it was from 81 to 49 in this time period. The percentage decline in male and female IMR are 41.02 and 39.5 percent respectively, during the last two decades.

It was also noted that in case of IPC crimes, an increase of 43 percent was registered in kidnapping and abduction, while rape cases had amplified by 30 percent, trafficking of minor girls recorded an increase of 27 percent and feticide saw a hike of 19 percent over 2010. Crimes against girl children in 2011 have also seen a considerable rise. 132 cases of feticide were reported in the last year, while 7,112 cases of child rape were reported in the country.