At a time when the country is worried about the safety of women in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape incident, the Supreme Court yesterday flagged a national concern over rampant female feticide and infanticide resulting in a sharp drop in the number of girls in the age group zero to six.

Finding the ratio of girls per 1,000 boys in the age group dipping from 927 in 2001 to 914 a decade later, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra summoned the Health Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Delhi, the worst performing states, to detail action taken under Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, which prohibits determination of the sex of foetus.

The bench said it was about time to change the mindset of parents and society giving importance to a male child in a family.