More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research.

Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal selection and selective abortion 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.

Ultrasound

The latest research is by Prabhat Jha of St Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Rajesh Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research in Chandigarh, India.

They found that there was an increasing tendency to select boys when previous children had been girls.

In cases where the preceding child was a girl, the ratio of girls to boys in the next birth was 759 to 1,000.

This fell even further when the two preceding children were both girls. Then the ratio for the third child born was just 719 girls to 1,000 boys.

However, for a child following the birth of a male child, the gender ratio was roughly equal.

Prabhat Jha said conservative estimates in the research suggested half a million girls were being lost each year.

"If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10m missing female births would not be unreasonable."

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.

Lehron se darkar nauka par nahin hoti,koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti,
Nanhi cheenti jab daana lekar chalti hai,chadhti deewaron par, sau bar phisalti hai.
Man ka vishwas ragon mein saahas bharta hai,chadhkar girna, girkar chadhna na akharta hai.
Akhir uski mehnat bekar nahin hoti,koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.

Dubkiyan sindhu mein gotakhor lagata hai,ja ja kar khali haath lautkar aata hai.Milte nahi sahaj hi moti gehre paani mein,badhta dugna utsah isi hairani mein.
Muthi uski khali har bar nahin hoti,Koshish karne walon ki haar nahi hoti.
Asaflta ek chunauti hai, ise sweekar karo,kya kami reh gayi, dekho aur sudhar karo.

Jab tak na safal ho, neend chain ki tyago tum,Sangharsh ka maidan chhodkar mat bhago tum.Kuch kiye bina hi jai jaikar nahin hoti,koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.

-Harivansh Rai Bachan

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The Constitutional Amendment Bill providing reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in unaided private educational institutions had smooth passage in Lok Sabha on Wednesday with all round support but BJP contended that leaving minority institutions out of its ambit would harm the cause of weaker sections.

The Constitution (104th Amendment) Bill was passed almost unanimously in a division with 379 voting in favour and one voting against and one abstaining.

An amendment moved by BJP Deputy Leader V K Malhotra seeking inclusion of minority institutions under its purview was defeated with 272 voting against and 110 in favour with three abstentions.

Replying to a day-long debate, HRD Minister Arjun Singh said the question of reservation in central institutions not covered so far would be addressed "frontally and holistically".

Hi everybody any updates on the past record of Sonia Gandhi