A badly skewed sex ratio in the Indian capital, Delhi, has suddenly corrected itself, according to official figures. In the period from 2005 to 2007, only 871 girls were born in Delhi for every 1000 boys, but last year the ratio had changed to 1004 girls per 1000 boys, the Registrar Generals records show.

The trouble with that figure is that it represents an over-correction, and a highly unlikely one at that, since demographers consider the natural ratio at birth to be about 960 females to every 1000 males. Across all India from 2005 to 2007, there were only about 900 – the result of millions of abortions based on illegal ultrasound sex tests, and infanticide.

So what is going on in Delhi? The government there has launched an anti-gendercide drive, offering parents cash bonuses of 5000 rupees for each new daughter registered at birth and as much as 25,000 more through the course of her childhood as long as she stays in school. The money can be used to pay for further education or for wedding expenses, the London Timesreports.

But UN experts think Delhi has been too quick to announce that it is winning its war against the killing of unborn and baby girls – a practice estimated by Unicef to account for as many as 50 million “missing” Indian women.

... [E]xperts said that the improvement in Delhi was too sudden to be credible, and was likely to be the result of more families registering daughters to claim the cash benefits, rather than a genuine rise in the numbers of girls being born.

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