Chetan Chauhan | Hindustan Times | New Delhi | 23 August 2008
The much-repeated story of families killing a girl child to have a son the next time has a number now.
About 54 per cent of the foetus, aborted in the national Capital and neighbouring Haryana, were of a girl child.
The figures are alarming because Delhi and Haryana have the lowest sex ratio. Delhi has a ratio of 868 girls for every 1,000 boys and Haryana 820, while Punjab comes third with 793. The national figure is 925.
Shantha Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said, “The act of killing a girl child is barbaric. It shows we may look modern but our thinking is still medieval. I demand stronger punishment of those involved in female foeticide.”