Sex preference in India: Trends, patterns and determinants

•The daughter preference has increased in India during 1992-93 to 2015-16.•Caste, religion, mass media exposure, educational level of women, wealth index, place of residence and geographical region play a significant role in determining sex preference.•The national and state level programmes need to be relooked for reducing son preference in India.•Government should emphasise the awareness programmes to combat declining child sex ratio for achieving the SDG of gender equality in India. Sex preference, particularly son preference is common in India. The present study explores the trends, patterns and determinants of sex preference in India. The unit level data come all the four rounds of Indian National Family Health Survey. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the factors affecting sex preference in India. The results revealed that preferring of son has decreased (from 35.6% to 20.3%) while daughter preference has slightly increased in India during 1992–93 to 2015–16. The multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that the caste, religion, mass media exposure, educational level of women, wealth index, place of residence and geographical region has a significant role in determining sex preference. The results suggest that the national and state level policies and programmes need to be relooked for accelerating the progress of reducing son preference in India. Government should focus on the vulnerable groups identified in the study and also should emphasise the awareness programmes to combat declining child sex ratio for achieving the sustainable development goals of gender equality in India.