The preference for sons in India is no longer translating into a willingness to abort girls.

Sons had been seen as breadwinners who would carry on the family name and perform the last rites for their parents. This has led to the illegal abortion of millions of unborn girls, particularly in northern states like Haryana.

But the latest government data and anecdotal evidence from women and health experts suggests that trend is changing due to education, the success of high-profile Indian women in business and sport and a crackdown on clinics that illegally abort girls.

For the first time, the national family health survey (NFHS) of 2019-21 found that females outnumber males – with 1,020 females for every 1,000 males. In the last NFHS of 2015-16, there were 991 females for every 1,000 males.

There is no official data on sex-selective abortions.

But the U.N. sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, estimates that India lost about 590,000 girl children to pre-natal sex selection every year between 2015 and 2020 and that about 46 million women and girls were missing in India in 2020.