In India, which has the second-largest population globally, the number of females exceeded that of males for the first time in statistics.
Traditionally, the birth of boys has been preferred to girls, as it is customary in India for brides to prepare large dowries, and it is often considered that having a daughter would be a heavy financial burden.
Gender-preferred abortions have been banned by law but have remained persistent and have always been one of the countries where the number of men far exceeds the number of women.
However, according to the latest version of the “National Family Health Survey” released by the Ministry of Health on the 24th, there were 1020 females for every 1000 males. This is the first time that the gender ratio has been reversed in major censuses since the census began in 1876.
Experts say the reason why the male-female ratio was reversed is that females have a longer life expectancy. The number of births is still higher for boys, with only 929 girls for every 1,000 boys.
On the other hand, the total fertility rate dropped from 2.2 in the previous survey conducted in 2015-16 to 2. It is below the population replacement level, which is an equilibrium with no increase or decrease in population.
India currently has a population of about 1.3 billion. The United Nations ( UN ) predicts that it will overtake China, the world’s number one, within the next decade. This survey was conducted on about 600,000 households.