Education is accorded a high priority in development policy in most countries, including India.

Education is a fundamental requirement for enhancing overall quality of individual and societal life.

While it is laudable that the Indian government has made the effort to initiate a holistic reproductive health programme, its failure to address issues of sexuality that arise in this context is puzzling.

STRONG preference for sons over daughters exists in the Indian subcontinent, east Asia, north Africa and west Asia unlike in the western countries [Muthurayappa et al 1997, Lancet 1990, Okun 1996].

We use data from the 1981 and 1991 censuses of India to examine (a) sex ratios among infants aged under 2, (b) child mortality (q5) by sex, and (c) estimated period sex ratios at birth (SRB) calculated by reverse survival methods, to see whether bias against female children pers