Did you know? National survey finds 79% women, 78% men in India want a daughter

Couples overall continue to prefer having at least one son rather than at least one daughter.

New Delhi: A survey released by National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has revealed that approximately 79 per cent women and 78 per cent men in India want to have at least one daughter in their family. Contrary to general perception, couples in the country are increasingly wanting to have a daughter.

The survey finds that the number of women and men wanting a daughter has registered a significant rise from figures of 74 per cent and 65 per cent for women and men from the last time the survey was conducted - in 2005-06. What is even more interesting is that people belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Muslims, people from rural areas and people belonging to lower economic strata are most keen to have a daughter. The most-recent survey also finds that women with no education (85 per cent) outnumber women who have passed Class 12 (72 per cent) in the desire to have at least one daughter. Women in rural areas also prefer to have at least one daughter than their counterparts in urban areas.

The trends are similar for men.

Cutting across religions, women outnumber men in wanting to have a girl child.

In a country where most states have a gender ratio in favour of boys, the numbers are encouraging. However, a majority of families still prefer to have sons. The survey found that 82 per cent women and 83 per cent men overall want at least one son. Bihar (37 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (31 per cent) lead the survey in terms of women wanting more sons.