The widening gender inequality and poor sex ratio paints a grim picture of how a girl child faces widespread discrimination. A recent study by an NGO looks at how girls have faced crisis in health care, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, safe space and protection from abuses. The findings show that for the girl child, the struggle for survival begins in the womb itself. The census of 2011 shows that overall there are 38 million missing women. The boy-girl divide over the last few decades has widened to such an extent that in the age group of 0-6 years, there are 7.1 million fewer girls than boys as against 4.2 million in 1991.The dropout rate at various level of schooling can be dramatic and telling. The overall dropout rate at secondary level for girls was 42.3 per cent as against 57.2 per cent for boys. There has been increase of dowry -related cases with a 36 per cent increase in the reported cases from 2011 to 2012. The discrimination also extends to health, nutrition and even immunisation. The proportion of male children, who are fully immunised is four per cent higher than female child. As time passes the nutritional outcome for girls decline much faster than boys leading to deficiencies in growth, underweight and have a low-mid upper arm circumferences, widely considered the best measures of under nutrition. Such glaring facts ensure that we bear the tragic burden of a nation of disappearing daughters.
