On January 24, India is celebrating National Girl Child Day. One wonders what meaning it has in a country that selectively kills its daughters – both before and after their birth.

This senseless elimination of unborn and newborn girls does not take place in India alone – it’s a heinous crime that continues to burgeon unchecked in many countries in South Asia and West Africa. But India, along with its neighbor China, accounts for highest number of female infanticide and feticide in the world.

As per India’s 2011 census, the child sex ratio has sharply declined to 914 girls against 1000 boys. In China, as per 2010 census, the ratio is 100 girls to 118 boys. These two nations are together turning South Asia into a masculine subcontinent.

(Read: India’s Alarming Child Sex Ratio – 914 Girls to 1000 Boys)

In china, the skewed sex ratio is attributed to country’s one-child policy whereas in India the key factors include religion, culture, and a male obsessed society.

The irony is that India banned, under Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technologies Act, the use of ultrasound for sex determination and selective abortion way back in 1994. China followed with its own set of laws a year later. However these bans have done little to check female feticide in both the countries. As they say law alone does not deter, enforcement does. The offenders are often let off with mild punishment – to continue to perpetrate the crime.

Deeply in love with boys societies in India and China hate and eliminate girls using various means, selective fetus abortion being the dominant one. India houses many hospitals and medical facilities that almost openly promote sex determination and assist in girl child abortion. The practice is rampant in China too.

The result – 60 million girls missing in Asia alone!

If unwanted girls manage to take birth, they are buried alive, thrown in dustbins, subjected to deliberate malnutrition, or put through some other physical torture such that their deaths can be certified as “natural”. The chilling stories of such systematic murders of girl children don’t even make headlines – they are often in fine print – designed for a casual look or complete pass.

In most cases mothers are party to the crime. Their excuse is that if they don’t agree, they face harassment or threats by husbands and in-laws. While that is part of the problem, the larger issue is that preference for a son is deep rooted in Indian and Chinese cultures. Parents and grandparents celebrate the arrival of a boy whereas a girl is greeted with utmost sorrow.

If the trend continues, by 2020 India will have 25 million more boys than girls and China 35 million. These regional powers may manage to become global powers soon but wannable grooms in both the countries won’t find brides in years to come!