Gender bias kills 240 000 infant girls in every year

NEW DELHI - Almost a quarter-of-a-million girls younger than fiYe years old die in ,ndia eYery year dXe to neJleFt resXltinJ from society's preference for sons, a gender discrimination study found yesterday.

This was over and above those aborted simply for being female, researchers wrote in The Lancet medical journal.

"Gender-based discrimination towards girls doesn't simply prevent them from being born, it may also precipitate the death of those who are born," said study co-author Christophe Guilmoto of the Paris Descartes University.

"Gender equity is not only about rights to education, employment or political representation, it is also about care, vaccination, and nutrition of girls, and ultimately survival."

Guilmoto and a team used population data from 46 countries to calculate how many infant girls would have died in a society where there was no discrimination impact, and how many died in reality.

7he difference, about deaths out of every , girls born between and , was ascribed to the effects of gender bias.

7his amounted to about , deaths per year, or . million over a decade.

"Around 22 percent of the overall mortality burden of females under five in ,ndia is therefore due to gender bias, the ,nternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), a research institute based in Austria, said in a statement.

The problem was most pronounced in northern India, the researchers found, with states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, accounting for two-thirds of the excess deaths.

Hardest hit were poor, rural, farming regions with low education levels, high population densities, and high birth rates.