Indian social scientists are predicting a rise in sexual violence and wife-sharing because 40 million aborted girls are missing from the population. It is estimated that 5 million girls are aborted each year. “In Haryana [state] a whole generation of young men is failing to find wives because a quarter of the female population has simply disappeared,” says the London Times.

“All over India, since the 1980s when the country was flooded with cheap ultrasound technology, this mobile killing machine, wielded by doctors with no ethics, has been doing its lethal work,” the Times reports. “Villages may not have clean drinking water or electricity, but they have access to ultrasound tests. Some clinics in towns load the machine onto a van, along with a generator, and go to remote towns offering sex-selection services. In some villages no girl has been born for years.”

Women’s groups have reported cases of fraternal polyandry. A young woman is formally married to one man but shared with his brothers. Police in Uttar Pradesh also say that there have been five cases of fratricide in the past year motivated by sexual jealousy or rivalry.