India marks birth of world's 7 billionth person

Oct 31, 2011, 11:26 GMT

New Delhi - A baby girl born in northern India Monday has been symbolically claimed as the world's 7 billionth person, in a campaign against selective female foeticide.

Baby Nargis was born in Mall village in Uttar Pradesh state, said child rights group Plan International, which marked the day to draw world attention to India's growing gender gap.

India, an emerging global power with a population of 1.2 billion that is predicted to overtake China by 2025, is estimated to be 'missing' 7 million girls.

Hundreds of thousands of female foetuses are terminated every year, although sex-selective abortions are illegal, and even sex determination by ultrasound is not permitted.

'By celebrating the birth of a girl as Baby 7 billion we are drawing attention to the serious issue of India's declining child sex ratio,' said Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director of Plan India.

Authorities have said they are considering ways to improve the prevention of selective foeticide.

'We should all be worried about the declining child sex ratio and the serious social ramifications,' Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said recently.

'We must take all necessary steps - political, social, economic and scientific - to end the discrimination against the girl child.'

According to the 2011 census, there are just 914 girls for every 1,000 boys aged between 0 and 6 years across India, with the ratio of female births even lower in Uttar Pradesh.

The natural discrepancy between birth rates in humans is estimated at around 950 girls for every 1,000 boys.