A brother feeding his little sister - one of the lesser seen scenes in the shanties of India where millions live and struggle in abject poverty

In 1991, Amartya Sen, the much-acclaimed economics Nobel Laureate, pegged the number of the missing girls of India at a staggering 100 million, a far cry from the government's claim of 4.1 million. Where are these missing girls? Missing is a quasi-anonymous word for murdered - murdered in the womb, murdered as a newborn or murdered in existence by being sold into India's murky flesh trade. According to a talk show by Aamir Khan, India's leading Bollywood actor, such a disparity in sex ratios has given rise to an entire generation of males unable to find life partners for themselves simply because there are no women.

Skewed sex ratios and abject poverty in a village in Punjab in the Mansa district have given rise to forced polyandry - here marriages are based on land holdings, so if a family has brothers - just one of them gets married on the basis of land holdings.

The "wife," after bearing him an heir, is then often forced into cohabiting with the rest of the brothers - a modern-day Draupadi but without the woman's consent. Polyandry is not uncommon in certain parts of India - some high-altitude villages in the remote Himalayas used to practice this, but today, it is a dying tradition. The reasons were simply that their land was not very fertile and subject to harsh conditions - polyandry ensured there were no fights amongst families and the woman was, in fact, given much importance and a high status.

There are many claims by the government, NGOs and women-empowerment agencies all contradicting the sex ratio figures - the fact is the figures are abysmal. A sex ratio of 915 females to every 1000 males in 2011, a steep drop from the 947 females to every 1000 males in 1991 shows that while India may be progressing in technology, economy and other venues - it has been unable to control the Indian mindset of preferring a son to a daughter and going to murderous lengths for it.

Prenatal sex determination was banned in India in 1994, and even during the myriad ultrasound scans a pregnant woman has - all doctors and technicians are legally bound not to divulge the sex of the child. That doesn't stop female foeticide though and this is not limited just to the rural populace - the urban population sex ratios are even more skewed. Horror stories abound with women forced to abort with disastrous consequences even in the sixth or seventh month, multiple forced abortions, women themselves killing their newborn daughters. Women empowerment is a far cry for the harsh reality. There are stories in the news almost every day of parents selling their daughter into the flesh trade to alleviate their poverty and feed their other children. Rampant and thoughtless increase of the population and an inability of the country and the government to support such a large human mass is one of the biggest reasons why the flesh trafficking trade flourishes in India. That and an undying desire to have an heir, a son to take the family name forward - daughters are still treated as the inferior lot and an unnecessary expense. Perhaps the missing girls of India are lucky in a way...