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More girls were born in Delhi than boys last year for the first time, according to official figures, after parents were given cash bonuses of £125 for each new daughter as part of a drive to stamp out female infanticide.
Government officials cited the statistics as evidence that India is finally winning its war against the killing of unborn and baby girls, a practice estimated to account for as many as 50 million Indian women having gone “missing”, according to Unicef.
However, experts said that the improvement in Delhi was too sudden to be credible, and was likely to be the result of more families registering daughters to claim the cash benefits, rather than a genuine rise in the numbers of girls being born.
In the Indian capital, 1,004 girls were born for every 1,000 boys in 2008, according to the Chief Registrar, Births and Deaths.
The figures showed a startling jump in the ratio of girls to boys in a region that has had one of the worst records for female infanticide in the subcontinent.
In the period from 2005 to 2007, only 871 girls had been born in Delhi per 1,000 boys, according to the Registrar General.
Nesim Tumkaya, of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) said he wished the latest figures were true, but that data that showed more females than males being born defied the rules of nature – which dictate the reverse. “The figures are impossible,” he said.
Demographers consider the “natural” ratio at birth to be about 960 females per 1,000 males. Across all of India from 2005 to 2007, there were only about 900.
The skewed sex ration is the product of millions of illegal abortions of female foetuses and of the widespread murder of baby girls, experts say. Abortions are most common among rich couples who can afford ultrasound scans to illegally check their unborn baby’s sex, according to research by the UNPF.
Girls are prejudiced against largely because of the dowry system and inheritance practices tilted in favour of men. Illegal ultrasound sex tests are often advertised with catchphrases such as “spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later”.
As part of its anti-infanticide drive, the Delhi Government deposits 5,000 rupees (£125) in the name of a girl at the time of her birth and as much as 25,000 more through the course of her childhood as long as she stays in school. The money can be used to pay for further education or for wedding expenses.
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据官方统计数据，去年印度德里出生的女婴数量首次超过男婴，此前（政府规定）父母每生一个女孩可得到125美元的现金奖励，作为其反弑婴行动的一部分。
政府官员引用这一数据证明，印度终于取得了反弑杀未出生和幼年女婴斗争的胜利。据联合国儿童基金会统计，弑婴已导致印度约5000万女性“失踪”。
然而，专家说，德里的改变太突然以至于不够可信，而且这一结果可能是由于更多家庭为得到现金奖励而申报自己生了女儿所造成，而并非出生的女婴数量真正有所增加。
根据生死登记总处的统计数据，2008年，印度首都的男女出生比例为1000:1004。
这些数据显示了该地区新生女婴和男婴比例的惊人提升，德里曾是印度次大陆弑杀女婴最严重的地区。
根据生死登记总处数据，在2005年到2007年，德里每出生1000个男孩仅有871个女孩出生。
联合国人口基金会的尼西姆•坦姆卡亚说，他希望最新的数据是真实的，但是该数据所反映的出生女婴的数量超过了男婴有悖自然规律——应该反过来才对。他说：“这样的数据是不可能的。”
人口统计学家认为“自然的”出生率应该是每出生1000个男婴约有960个女婴出生。从2005年到2007年间，整个印度出生的女婴与男婴比仅为900：1000。
专家称，不平衡的性别比例是由数百万例非法流产女胎以及普遍弑杀女婴造成的。根据联合国人口基金会的调查，堕胎在富有人群中最为普遍，因为他们可以通过超声波扫描来非法鉴定胎儿的性别。
女孩遭歧视主要是因为嫁妆习惯和遗产惯例都有利于男性。非法的超声波性别检测常打出“现在花600卢比，将来省5万卢比”这样的标语来做广告。
作为反弑婴行动的一部分，德里市政府以女孩的名义在其出生时为其存下5000卢比（相当于125美元），以后她只要上学，还能在整个童年期间得到2.5万卢比。这些钱可以用来支付她继续接受教育或结婚的费用。 |
