- News>
- Health & Medicine
Baby girls more likely to die than baby boys: Study
New Delhi, July 20: Baby girls in the country are much more likely to die due to both preventable illness and unexplained causes in comparison to baby boys, a study here says, throwing light on society`s gender bias.
New Delhi, July 20: Baby girls in the country are much more likely to die due to both preventable illness and unexplained causes in comparison to baby boys, a study here says, throwing light on society's gender bias.
The study carried out by a team of scientists from St
Stephens Hospital and AIIMS in three socio-economically
deprived colonies found that the number of deaths of baby
girls below one year, due to unexplained causes was three
times more than that of their male counterparts.
"Unexplained deaths means when the cause of death is not ascertained," Kumar said, adding health care workers involved in the study get to know of these deaths during the survey. Usually these were reported as sudden deaths by parents, but some of these may be cases of parents actually killing their female babies.
The three colonies had a population of about 64,000. Findings of the study were published in the British medical journal. The study was carried out for a period of five years.
Even in the category of treatable diseases, the number of baby girls who died in first year was double than that of baby boys, head of the Department of Community Health at St Stephens Hospital Dr Amod Kumar, who was a part of the team which carried out the study, told.
"It is very unfortunate that diarrhoea - which is a treatable disease - was responsible for 22 per cent deaths in children, killing twice as many girls," Kumar said.
Girls between their first and fifth birthdays were 30-50 per cent more likely to die as compared to boys, the research, which was aimed at determining whether the imbalance in country's sex ratio could be explained by less favourable treatment of girls in infancy, said. Bureau Report
"Unexplained deaths means when the cause of death is not ascertained," Kumar said, adding health care workers involved in the study get to know of these deaths during the survey. Usually these were reported as sudden deaths by parents, but some of these may be cases of parents actually killing their female babies.
The three colonies had a population of about 64,000. Findings of the study were published in the British medical journal. The study was carried out for a period of five years.
Even in the category of treatable diseases, the number of baby girls who died in first year was double than that of baby boys, head of the Department of Community Health at St Stephens Hospital Dr Amod Kumar, who was a part of the team which carried out the study, told.
"It is very unfortunate that diarrhoea - which is a treatable disease - was responsible for 22 per cent deaths in children, killing twice as many girls," Kumar said.
Girls between their first and fifth birthdays were 30-50 per cent more likely to die as compared to boys, the research, which was aimed at determining whether the imbalance in country's sex ratio could be explained by less favourable treatment of girls in infancy, said. Bureau Report