Missing Daughters: Social Perceptions and Treatment of the Girl Child in India

Abstract

India has been witnessing a decline in both sex ratio and child sex ratio (0-6 years) over decades. Female mortality at pre-natal stage, at the time of birth, neo-natal and during childhood has contributed to a syndrome called “missing girls” in India and other south Asian countries. Demographic data in India record low child sex ratio than sex ratio. Therefore, the problem basically is of missing girls than missing females. The threat lies more in childhood than adulthood. Girl child has been differentiated/ neglected in terms of health, nourishment, education and other gendered values. The problem also lies in the imbalance of child sex ratio in India which shows that apathy towards girl child is visible in some states of India. The vulnerability of the girls is more prominent in north western India than in southern India, which is the result of certain cultural practices that make discrimination and unequal treatment of daughters a normal phenomenon. The paper aims to discuss the various factors of daughter discrimination that leads to drop in sex ratio, making the missing girl syndrome all the more problematic in Indian context. The paper also discusses the basic factors that are responsible for low child sex ratio with major emphasis on foeticide, infanticide and neglect of girl child in India.