It's 883 girls per 1000 boys in Gujarat

The child sex ratio in Gujarat of 883 girls per 1000 boys is the sixth lowest in India. Only Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi are worse off in this regard.

Compared to the child sex ratio of 928 in the 1991 census, Gujarat's child sex ratio in 2001 shows a decline of 45 points.

The states and union territories that have shown decline in the child sex ratio are Punjab (-77), Haryana (-60), Himachal Pradesh (-55), Chandigarh (-54), Delhi (-47) and Gujarat (-45), though they all are economically developed states with high female literacy.

The child sex ratio in Punjab has declined from 875 in 1991 to 798 in 2001. In Haryana, the child sex ratio has declined from 879 in 1991 to 819 in 2001. Himachal Pradesh's child sex ratio has declined from 951 in 1991 to 896 in 2001. Similarly in Chandigarh, the child sex ratio has declined from the levels of 899 in 1991 to 845 in 2001, while Delhi's child sex ratio has declined 915 in 1991 to 868 in 2001.

Overall the country's child sex ratio has reduced from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001.

"Several questions have been raised with regard to trends in the child sex ratio in the last decade. The decline in child sex ratio may be due to factors such as neglect of female children resulting in higher mortality at younger ages, female infanticide and female foeticide. High incidence of induced abortion and sharp decline in child sex ratio in the last decade clearly proves the practice of female foeticide," said Vibhuti Patel, member, Centre for Women's Studies, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai.

India is among the few countries in the world where males outnumber females. According to the 2001 census, the sex ratio in India is 933 females per 1000 males. Although there is a marginal improvement from the 1991 census' 927, the sex ratio continues to be significantly adverse towards women.

India's sex ratio of 933 is the lowest amongst the 10 most populous countries in the world. Six of these have more males than females in their population. Pakistan has a sex ratio of 938, China (944), Indonesia (1004), Nigeria (1016), Japan (1041), Brazil (1025), USA (1029) and Russia (1140) have better sex ratios than India.

Their are two perspectives to India's sex ratio. On the positive side, the sex ratio shows a marginal improvement of six points the 1991 census. However, over the past 100 years, the sex ratio has shown an alarming decline "" from 972 in 1901 to 933 in 2001.