Chakravarty Nayan, Dabla Vandana, Sagar Moni, Neogi Sharmila, Markan Mridu, Segan Mehak, Agnani Shilpi, Kapahi Pooja, Neogi Sourav
USAID's MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: India-Yash, Jhpiego, New Delhi, India.
USAID, New Delhi, India.
Front Glob Womens Health. 2022 Jun 13;3:903930. doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2022.903930. eCollection 2022.
Globally, 23.1 million missing female births have been documented, resulting in an imbalanced sex ratio at birth (SRB) between the late 1990s and 2017, with India accounting for almost half of this missing women population. While the country is progressively taking measures to enhance women's position in society and implementing policies toward augmenting the value of a girl child, some deeply rooted cultural and social beliefs propel a strong son preference, resulting in active daughter discrimination. The continuance of patriarchal norms and inequitable gender roles, resulting in son preference, fertility decrease, and reduction in preferred family sizes, and technical breakthroughs that allow for the identification of the sex of the fetus, is all connected to distortions in the sex ratio at birth. Son preference is a well-documented phenomenon in India, and its implications for skewed gender ratios, female feticide, and higher child mortality rates for girls have piqued researchers' and policymakers' interest. The fundamental factors of son preference as an ideology are less widely investigated. With this objective, an extensive secondary review was conducted of the socio-cultural norms and biases leading to increased prenatal sex selection in India despite the laws against it. The study findings suggest that it is imperative to emphasize the necessity for consistent and collective efforts from all stakeholders: changing the social perception of the value of girls requires collective effort and the equal participation of all stakeholders, including civil society organizations and the local community.
全球范围内，有记录显示有2310万女婴未能出生，导致20世纪90年代末至2017年间出生性别比失衡，其中印度几乎占了失踪女性人口的一半。尽管该国正在逐步采取措施提高妇女在社会中的地位，并实施政策来提升女孩的价值，但一些根深蒂固的文化和社会观念导致强烈的男孩偏好，从而出现对女孩的实际歧视。父权规范和不平等的性别角色持续存在，导致男孩偏好、生育率下降以及理想家庭规模缩小，再加上能够鉴定胎儿性别的技术突破，所有这些都与出生性别比失衡有关。男孩偏好在印度是一个有充分记录的现象，其对性别比例失衡、女性胎儿流产以及女孩较高的儿童死亡率的影响引发了研究人员和政策制定者的兴趣。作为一种观念的男孩偏好的根本因素则较少受到广泛研究。出于这一目的，对导致印度产前性别选择增加（尽管有相关法律禁止）的社会文化规范和偏见进行了广泛的二手资料综述。研究结果表明，必须强调所有利益相关者持续共同努力的必要性：改变对女孩价值的社会认知需要共同努力以及包括民间社会组织和当地社区在内的所有利益相关者的平等参与。
