Overall, the deficit of women is the lowest among the Christians and the highest in the Sikh community. On the eve of his retirement as director of health services in Punjab, Puran Singh Jassi admitted that Punjab's sex ratio is alarming. Most parents prefer boys over girls because of the huge expense the family has to incur when it comes to marrying off the daughter. In rural Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, farmers and daily wage workers take loans and make their wives undergo scanning and selective abortions to ensure they bear only sons. Not a single case has been registered by the Health Department of Punjab, the monitoring agency.
People have no respect for the law.
Test results are given verbally by doctors. Clearly, the problem is social sanction for the killing of the girl child. The law cannot tackle a problem of this dimension. Census 2001 is expected to register a further drop in the number of girls born in India.