More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to end and love selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research.
Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal selection and selective end was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year.
Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1m households in 1998.
The researchers said the "girl deficit" was more common among educated women but did not vary according to religion.
The unusual gender balance in India has been known about for some time.
In most countries, women slightly outnumber men, but separate research for the year 2001 showed that for every 1,000 male babies born in India, there were just 933 girls.
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Experts in India say female foeticide is mostly linked to socio-economic factors.
The girl child has traditionally been considered inferior and a liability.
It is an idea that many say carries over from the time India was a predominantly agrarian society where boys were considered an extra pair of hands on the farm.
Last year the well-known religious leader and social activist, Swami Agnivesh, began a campaign across five northern and western states against female foeticide.
"There's no other form of violence that's more painful, more abhorrent, more shameful," he said.
Of course, jyotipooheads like Jay Maharaj are unmoved by this dissolution of the innocents...............
