The fall-out from gendercide continues as the Washington Post reports of the Middle Class’ preference for boys. The growing gap is compensated with yet another human rights violation: trafficking. As the BBC reports there is a growing trend to kidnap girls and young women to bring them to other parts of the country to “stand in” for the girls and women missing due to gendercide.

The BBC reports that new census data from India confirms the predictions over the imbalance in the gender ratio caused by female infanticide: eight million girls under the age of eight are “missing” due to a culture, which makes parents dread the birth of a girl due to dowry payments.

The Economist is focusing on the disappearance of women, in particular girls, in its latest issue, asking: “what happened to the 100 million baby girls?” The article explains how declining fertility and prejudices are major factors in a radical shift of gender balance in many societies.

The preference for male babies – female infanticide – has now officially reached the United States of America. As the New York Times reports that the census data reveals a preference for males in minority groups such as Chinese, Koreans and Indians.

Time and again the consequences of female infanticide – the preference for boys leading to sex-selective abortions – are discussed in the media. The latest report comes from China where the combination of the one-child policy mixed with a preference for males has created a gap of 32 million in the generation of under 20-year-olds.

A little while back the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, came out with a statementabout “missing women”. He condoned the aborting of female fetuses as “shameful.” Mr. Singh said: “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women.”