DID YOU KNOW?

Ethiopia remains one of the least urbanized countries in the world, with 84 percent of its population residing in rural areas. More...

(June 2009) India, along with China and several other countries, has a history of neglect for girls and women that produced lower female survival rates and an imbalanced ratio of males to females. In recent years, male-to-female sex ratios at birth and among children in India have increased much more than can be explained solely by discrimination against girls. There is evidence that technologies like portable sonogram machines have made it easy to detect the sex of a fetus, enabling families to abort a female fetus if they do not want a(nother) daughter. In spite of a ban on sex-detection tests and sex-selective abortion, the practice has continued, raising questions about the value and rights of women in this society.

During a PRB Discuss Online, Leela Visaria, researcher and president of the Asian Population Association, answered participants' questions on the issues surrounding the status of women and the imbalanced ratio of males to females in India.

Read a transcript of the questions and answers.