Getting your player ready...
India is leaping headfirst into the globalized world but still holds tight to a preference for boys, enlarging an already pronounced gender imbalance in the world’s second-most-populous nation. As the country modernizes, the problem is getting worse. According to the British medical journal The Lancet, as many as 500,000 female fetuses are aborted every year. Researchers say pressure for smaller families is the most immediate problem. “Squeeze on family size is fueling the trend,” said researcher Jyoti Sapru of the group ActionAid. “For households expressing preference for one child only, they want to make sure it is a son.” Photos by Saurabh Das, The Associated Press
