Over the last 40 years, the proportion of boys born in India has decreased from 54% to 51.2%, according to health experts.

However, according to a study, the northern states and the richest families continue to have a high proportion of males born out of all births.

India’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) has consistently exceeded its natural SRB and has been among the highest in the world since the late 1980s. In 2022, the US think tank Pew Research Center calculated that India’s SRB during the preceding 20 years was 110 boys to 100 girls, similar to China’s (115), Armenia’s (114), or Vietnam’s (111).

Since the late 1980s until lawmakers outlawed fetal sex reveal in 1994, cultural inclinations for male offspring and the proliferation of prenatal diagnostic tools, such as ultrasound scans, have contributed to the drop in India’s SRB.

Nonetheless, certain medical professionals and health advocates have remained concerned that prenatal sex reveal has continued to occur, resulting in the selective elimination of fe-male fetuses, even in the face of penalties for infractions.

The SRB is now going in the intended direction, although unevenly, according to the latest research. For example, the richest families continue to have abnormally high proportions of boys at birth notwithstanding the general reduction.

Boys made up 52.8 percent of infants in the quintile of wealthiest families, 52.1 percent in middle-class homes, and 51.1 percent in the poorest households during the 2012–21 period.

The northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana have likewise continued to have high male birth rates.

The study’s lead researcher, Diwakar Mohan, an associate research professor and public health expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, said that high SRB levels among affluent families and northern states were “not surprising.”

According to Mo-han, “prenatal sex disclosure practices probably went underground when the ban came into effect.” “Those with money, contacts, or motivation have an easier time getting access in such situations.”

According to the research, the richest families in the northern area were primarily responsible for the increase in the percentage of male births between 1995 and 2003. After that, the proportion started to decline between 2004 and 2011 and between 2011 and 2021.

The publication Scientific Reports is where Mohan and his colleagues have published their research.