By 2050, India will have 28 million men who would have to stay single, thanks to female foeticide.
The warning came at the Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health in Hyderabad on Monday.
“Ten million girls in India have been killed by their parents. These
girls are not dying because of a tsunami, any infectious diseases or malnutrition, but have been killed by their parents who do not want a girl child,” said Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for women and child development.
The way around it, she said, was to involve men. “We need the chaps, but as partners.”
The 2001 census shows that for every 100 girls born, there were 108 boys.
Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekara Reddy did not attend citing illness and family tragedy respectively.