This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Indians Will Keep Having Babies Until A Boy Is Born: Census Data

Indians Will Keep Having Babies Until A Boy Is Born: Census Data
AJMER, INDIA - 2015/05/10: A baby playing balloon on the occasion of 'Mothers Day'. (Photo by Anand Sharma/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Pacific Press via Getty Images
AJMER, INDIA - 2015/05/10: A baby playing balloon on the occasion of 'Mothers Day'. (Photo by Anand Sharma/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Four years after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called India's declining sex ratio "a national shame," new census data shows that the male child is still preferred in India and more families have boys than girls.

The data shows prenatal sex determination and repeated pregnancies are being used for sex selection, The Hindu reported.

As family sizes got bigger, the sex ratio was less skewed, indicating repeated pregnancies.

In other words, a couple will keep having children until a boy is born. The data shows that there are 0.9 million families with all six girls, and 0.3 million families with all six boys.

The 2011 census data showed that the sex ratio has declined from 927(1000) in 2001 to 914(1000).

In families with one child, the census recorded that 22 million women had one girl, and 28.5 million had one boy, the newspaper reported.

In families with two children, 26 million women said that they had two boys, while only 13.3 million had two girls.

Families with three boys, two boys and a girl were far more common than families with three girls, two girls and a boy, according to the data.

Contact HuffPost India

Also on HuffPost:

"This is a special family photo. My Dad aged 93, holding his great granddaughter, then 10 days old, for the first time. He was desperate to hold her. He died 2 weeks later."

Great-great-grandparents holding their great-great-grandbabies

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.