They may not be on any protected schedule list as yet, but girls are a dwindling race in India, says Aekta Jerath

In a perfect world, women would outnumber men. This is fact, not a male fantasy. In developed nations, where the entire population has equal access to healthcare facilities, women constitute more than half of the total population. But ours is far from a perfect world.

Census 2001 figures show that there are 933 Indian women for every 1,000 men, which means there are 35 million men who will remain bachelors because there aren’t enough women to go around. So much for male fantasies!

The more prosperous states post a grim picture, with Delhi at 821, Chandigarh at 773, Punjab at 874 and Haryana at 861. Kerala is the only Indian state with a ‘natural’ sex ratio: 1,058, followed by Pondicherry at 1,001. In the rest of India, the girls are simply missing. Is it female infanticide or sex-selective abortion at work?

In nature, the woman complements the man, balances out the yin and yang of this creation called Earth. She is the mother, the creator, the nurturer. She has been idolised as a Goddess for centuries for her life-giving gifts. She is the reason this species exists and nature has ensured that she is strong enough to take on the burden of her crucial role. In fact, research has even proved it, but is our society ready to hear this?

And God Made Woman
At the time of conception, all embryos appear to be female. Sexual differentiation takes place only between weeks six and nine of human life. Several studies on environmental exposures that influence sex at birth show that if the parents have certain physical disorders, or have been exposed to certain kinds of radiation, pesticides, etc, the child is more likely to be female.

In other words, if there are external disruptions at the crucial stage of sexual differentiation, the embryo remains female. Evolution clearly has made the female more resilient. So why is this is a man’s world?

Stronger Of The Two
As a foetus too, the female has better chances of survival than the male. During foetal development ‘the male sex is clearly the more fragile one’, according to a study in the US. While some 125 males are conceived for every 100 females, only about 106 boys are born for every 100 girls in that country. In other words, stillbirths and miscarriages disproportionately cull boys, and male foetuses appear to be more susceptible to reproductive hazards.

Even as a newborn baby and child, she has better endurance and a sturdier constitution as male babies experience higher rates of birth defects. Cases of physical and mental retardation afflict more male than female children. Girls do better than boys at school and are more likely to survive life-threatening diseases.

A woman has oestrogen. Her natural hormones ensure that she has greater capacity for work, pain and old age. Men are more likely to contract fatal diseases and disorders than women. Labour cramps are considered the highest threshold of pain on a scale that includes burning and stabbing, and yet millions of women go through it every day.

Women menstruate, which some doctors feel, lessens their chances of heart and angina attacks, since their blood is regularly rejuvenated. In most developed nations, in egalitarian societies, women far outlive the men.

But in India, where they are not given equal opportunities of education and healthcare, they become a minority statistic. The woman is vital to the planet; when will we realise that? Perhaps, having a daughter, and simply letting nature takes its course, could just turn out to be your biggest contribution to humanity.

Painting By Jatin Das