What: State of the World Population 2020
Who: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Why: round 460,000 girls went missing in India
According to the State of the World Population 2020, preference for sons and gender-biased sex selection have led to over 142 million girls missing globally and 46 million girls missing in India,.
The report, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), focuses on gender bias and violence against girls and women.
Main features of the report
Around 460,000 girls went missing in India — which means they were not born due to sex-selection biases — each year between 2013 and 2017.
China (50 per cent) and India (40 per cent) together account for around 90 per cent of the estimated 1.2 million girls lost annually to female foeticide.
The economic disruptions and income loss because of the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to increase violence against girls and women.
At world level, one in five girls is married by age 18 and millions of others are subjected to practices that harm them physically, mentally and emotionally, with the knowledge and consent of their families.
The three-most prevalent harmful practices are child marriage, son preference and gender-biased sex selection, and female genital mutilation.
