The southern state of Andhra Pradesh has a sex ratio of 943 females to 1,000 males. Sex determination tests and female feticide are common in small towns and rural areas of the largely farming state. "I consider it a shame that in our country we ascertain the sex of the baby before it enters the world," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy said at a function on the empowerment of woman in the state capital, Hyderabad.
In India, where millions of couples still hanker for a male child, the overall sex ratio is 927 females to 1,000 males, down from 945-to-1,000 more than a decade ago. It has one of the lowest female-to-male ratios in the world. Many couples see the boy as growing up to be a bread-winner and providing for them in their old age, unlike a daughter who will be married off and become part of her husband's family.
India has banned pre-natal sex testing through an act of parliament but non-government agencies say the law is basically toothless and sex determination tests are common. The Andhra Pradesh government has also appointed India's leading woman tennis player Sania Mirza -- who is from Andhra Pradesh -- as "state ambassador of the girl child" as part of its campaign to protect the female child.
Eighteen-year-old Mirza, the first Indian woman to get into the third round of a Grand Slam, will feature on billboards with the caption: "Your daughter may be the next champion."
