India's sex ratio at birth improves; Delhi the worst-performing state

Latest data shows improvement after four consecutive years of decline

India’s preference for sons over daughters reduced a little in the three years ending 2018, showing early, though weak, signs of increasing fairness towards the girl child.

In the 2016-2018 period, 1,112 male kids were born per 1,000 female births in India. This situation, however, is still worse than the naturally occurring ratio between 1,030 and 1,050, and the global average of 1,068 as visible in the World Bank data.

Nevertheless, this is a slight improvement from 1,116 male births per 1,000 female births in the 2015-2017 period, data released by the Sample Registration System (SRS) from the Census office