New Delhi, Sept 23: A baby girl as the second child
when the first is a boy is more than welcome and their ratio
outnumbers that of male children, a study by a premier
hospital in the capital has found.
The sex ratio for second children in the circumstance of
the first child being a boy is 1,140 girls per 1,000 boys,
according to the study by St Stephen's hospital.
"The sex ratio came down to 629 girls per thousand boys
when the first child was a girl, while it rose to 1,140 in
case of the first child being a boy," Jacob Puliyel, Head of
the Paediatrics Department in St Stephen's Hospital, told a news agency.
The study indicated that people welcome a girl after a
boy, but do not want a girl as their first child, he said.
The findings of the study, presented recently at the
International Conference on Global Health in Washington, also
established that the overall sex ratio has fallen from 910
girls per 1,000 boys to 865 girls in the last five decades.
The team of doctors that conducted the study examined the
hospital's birth data of 30,000 deliveries in the past 11
decades.
Interestingly, the ban on sex determination introduced by
the government to check foeticide in the country has not had a
significant effect on the sex ratio, the study found.
"The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act was introduced
in 1994 and in the past decade, the sex ratio has remained
constant at 865 girls per 1,000 boys," Puliyel said.
The findings strongly point towards the practice of
female foeticide as one of the important causes of the low sex
ratio.
"Foeticide, infanticide and death in childhood due to
neglect contributes to the decline of the sex ratio," he said.
The study found that the sex ratio reached 951 in the
1970s but then fell to 943 during the 1980s. It further came
down to 855 in the 1990s.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 23, 2007, 00:00