Male-dominated Asia ‘missing’ 96 million women

ASIA is “missing” about 96 million women – the vast majority in China and India – who died from discriminatory healthcare and neglect or who were never born at all, the UN has estimated.

Female infanticide and sex-selective abortion have caused a severe gender imbalance in Asia, and the problem is worsening despite rapid economic growth in the region, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report said.

“The old mindset with its preference for male children has now combined with modern medical technology” that makes it easier to predict and abort unborn girls, said Anuradha Rajivan, the report’s lead author.