Female Infant Mortality Disadvantage in India

Abstract

Son preference in India manifests into extreme forms of daughter avoidance either through pre-natal sex selective abortion or post-natal excess female infant mortality. These victims of daughter aversion are India’s “missing girls.” This paper demonstrates a novel methodology for estimating India’s missing girls. Estimates were made of number and incidence of missing girls due to sex selective abortion and excess female infant mortality by age one for the time period 1950-2010. State level analysis reveals wide variations in incidence and source of missing girls. National level analysis shows that between 1950 and 2010, a total of 58.29 million girls went missing, of which 28 percent were due to sex selective abortion and 72 percent due to post-natal excess mortality. Over the time period examined, the contribution of post-natal excess mortality to the number of missing girls has reduced while the contribution of sex selective abortion has increased. Policy recommendations are discussed. JEL codes: J11; J13; J16.