Since the introduction of ultrasound technology in the 1980s, gender testing has become more widespread and affordable.Ībortion was legalized in the country in 1971. In the 1970s, prenatal gender tests, conducted using amniocentesis, were rare and expensive. That was the ratio in India in the 1950s and 1960s, before prenatal sex tests became available across the country. Naturally, boys modestly outnumber girls at birth, at a ratio of approximately 105 male babies for every 100 female babies. This follows years of government efforts to curb sex selection – including a ban on prenatal sex tests and a massive advertising campaign urging parents to “ save the girl child” – and coincides with broader social changes such as rising education and wealth.Īmong India’s major religions, the biggest reduction in sex selection seems to be among the groups that previously had the greatest gender imbalances, particularly Sikhs. The new data suggests that Indian families are becoming less likely to use abortions to ensure the birth of sons rather than daughters. India’s artificially wide ratio of baby boys to baby girls – which arose in the 1970s from the use of prenatal diagnostic technology to facilitate sex-selective abortions – now appears to be narrowing, according to newly released data from the country’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS). This report presents numbers in the international system and, in parentheses, the Indian system. Indians use units such as lakhs and crores, placing commas at different intervals. Numbers: India’s number system differs from the international one.

See the Appendix for a table converting all sex ratio statistics used in this report. Here is a sample of how the same values are expressed in each system: This report follows the international practice, presenting ratios as the number of boys per 100 girls. In India, however, this ratio is often expressed as the number of girls per 1,000 boys, in which case the natural ratio at birth is about 950 girls per 1,000 boys. The natural sex ratio at birth is about 105 boys per 100 girls. International convention is to present sex ratios at birth as the number of boys per 100 girls. Ratios: It is natural for women to give birth to more boys than girls, on average. For more details, see “ Is it son preference or daughter aversion?” Both phrases are used in this report, because “son preference” and “daughter aversion” are closely linked and often interchangeable. However, researchers sometimes also refer to “daughter aversion” as the underlying cause of skewed sex ratios at birth in India. Terminology: “Son preference” is a phrase standardly used by scholars to describe the outlook of parents who engage in gender-biased sex selection, using abortions to give birth to more males and fewer females than would occur naturally. The most recent census data is from 2011, because India’s 2021 census was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The most recent data is from the fifth wave of the NFHS, conducted from 2019 to 2021. Sources: Most of the analysis is based on the Indian government-supported National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the official census of India. However, members of these and many other smaller religious groups are included in general population results at the country, regional and state levels. The report focuses on India’s four biggest religious communities – Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs – because there is not enough fertility and health data to make reliable estimates for smaller groups, such as Buddhists, Jains, adherents of other minority religions, and religiously unaffiliated people. This study describes India’s sex imbalance at birth and how it has been changing, both nationally and within major religious groups.

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