63 million unwanted girls born expecting sons

On Monday, finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the pink-coloured Economic Survey document and recommended that India must confront the societal metapreference for a son after observing the adverse sex ratio of females to males has led to 63 million "missing" women.

The colour of this year's survey cover, presented by chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, was chosen as a symbol of support for the growing movement to end violence against women, which spans continents.

The Survey highlighted a phenomenon of son metapreference which involves parents adopting fertility "stopping rules" having children until the desired number of sons are born.

"This metapreference leads naturally to the notional category of 'unwanted' girls which is estimated at over 21 million," says the Survey.