India, Jan. 12 -- Ten daughters later, that long-awaited moment: The 11th child, male. Married for 19 years, the 37-year-old woman and her husband got their long cherished wish on January 3 when she delivered a baby boy in what doctors at Jind district, Haryana where he was born, described as a high risk delivery.

"We were keen that there should be a son and some of my elder daughters also wished to have a brother," the father Sanjay Kumar told news agency PTI. Kumar who works as a daily wage labourer said all his daughters are in school, the eldest in class 12. He described his family situation as "god's will".

The Jind case is admittedly extreme and thankfully rare. The data is not.

The natural sex ratio at birth is about 105 male bi...