New Delhi: The Economic Survey covered itself in pink on Monday in solidarity with women while getting on to the #MeToo bandwagon.

But the fine print reflected the ground reality of "son preference" among many Indians, resulting in 21 million unwanted girls.

The report, dressed up in pink with even the slide show at the media conference tinged in that colour and the #MeToo hashtag occupying pride of place in a chapter, details how the outlawed sex determination tests have given way to subtler forms of displaying "son preference".

It flagged the disadvantage the girl child continues to face in the country, especially in north India, despite programmes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

"Parents may choose to keep having children until they get the desired number of sons. This is called 'son meta preference' (parents continuing to have children until they have the desired number of male children). A 'son meta preference' - even though it does not lead to sex-selective abortion - may nevertheless be detrimental to female children because it may lead to fewer resources devoted to them," the Survey noted.

Billing this as the area where Indian society needs to reflect on the most, the Survey has concluded that son preference has led to skewed sex ratio at birth (SRB) and beyond, "leading to estimates of 63 million 'missing women' in 2014". The notional number of "unwanted" girls - born while their parents were trying for boys - is 21 million.

"Son meta preference" has been established by studying the sex ratio of the last child (SRLC) and not just SRB. A skewed SRLC in Kerala indicates some "son meta preference" in the state otherwise pegged as progressive .

Gynaecologist Puneet Bedi was not surprised by the finding but disagreed with the use of the phrase "son preference''. "Girls are not dying because of son preference but hatred for daughters," he told The Telegraph.

He attributed the mushrooming of IVF clinics across the country to this continuing bias against the girl child. "Delhi alone has more than 900 IVF clinics. And, not even one out of the 100 of those who get IVF treatment actually need it but are sold the idea like any other consumer product."