The BBC reports on studies in India suggesting that infant girls have a substantially higher death rate than infant boys, even from diseases that should be relatively easy to treat.
The BBC notes that in 2001 that for every 1,000 male babies born in India there were just 933 girls born. This might sound horribly askew but in fact is just barely above the world average sex ratio. Worldwide the average is 105 boys for every 100 girls. Some countries have truly out-of-control sex ratios, such as parts of China where there are 140 boys born for every 100 girls. But in India, using the BBC’s figures, there are 107 boys born for every 100 girls. This could easily be explained by even moderate use of sex-selective abortions.
The BBC cites research from Delhi over a five-year period, however, that found the death rate for girls was almost one-third higher than for boys. In cases of “sudden, unexplained deaths,” 75 percent of victims were girls. The researchers behind the study believe that infanticide of female infants may explain the difference.
Which is not surprising — if parents are willing to go out of their way to ensure they abort a female fetus for cultural reasons, it’s not surprising to learn that females which are brought to term might receive substandard care and fewer resources.
This seems to be confirmed by the Delhi research which found that death rates among boys and girls for unpreventable deaths were roughly the same. But in the case of deaths from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, the death rate of girls was twice as high as that of boys.
Sources:
India girls ‘more likely to die’. The BBC, July 18, 2003.