Seema, a 30-year-old Indian housewife living in the capital, says that when she delivers her third child this week, she hopes it will be a boy.

"Everyone in the family wants a son. If it's a boy, he will earn, but if it's a girl, she will only suffer in a poor family like ours," she said as she waited to see her gynaecologist at a New Delhi hospital.

The Indian government says it hopes to change this mindset by awarding cash incentives to the parents of baby girls in a bid to dissuade them from aborting female foetuses.

Under the plan, unveiled this week ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday, families would receive staggered payments worth 5,000 dollars until the girls reach age 18 -- provided they go to school and don't marry young.

The government will spend 100 million rupees (2.5 million dollars) over the next year to kickstart the scheme which will help more than 100,000 girls, according to women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury.

India has only 927 females for every 1,000 males -- far lower than the worldwide average of 1,050 females -- due to the skyrocketing number of sex-selective abortions.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says India continues to lose almost 7,000 girls every day through abortions, while the British medical journal The Lancet says the country has lost 10 million females over the past two decades.

Most people prefer sons who are typically regarded as breadwinners, while girls are seen as a burden because of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom's family and the fact that their earnings go to their husband's family.

"These days no one settles for less than 150,000 rupees (3,700 dollars)," Seema said, quoting the going dowry rate in her neighbourhood.

"For a girl, there is only suffering in life."

Even well-off people who can afford a dowry often prefer boys because girls are seen to bring financial benefits to their in-laws -- not to their parents.

One popular Indian saying goes, "Bringing up a daughter is like watering your neighbour's garden."

The government plan will initially be implemented on a test basis in seven of the country's poorest states -- but some say the rich, not the poor, are more to blame for the high abortion rate.

"We are not scared to give birth to girls. It's the rich who kill them. No incentive will change their attitude," said Neeyasi Behera, 35, who works as a house help in Orissa state, one of those targeted by the plan.

India has strict laws against sex-selective abortion, but there have been only a handful of prosecutions as medical practitioners are reputed to have made it a profitable business.

Social activists say abortions of female foetuses are more common among the affluent because they have better access to medical facilities, but experts say such deep-seated prejudices against girls exist among the rich and the poor.

"The prejudice is so strong that it's too late to change it now after millions have been killed," said anti-foeticide activist Sabu George.

"Other plans have has made no difference," added Manmohan Sharma of the non-profit Voluntary Health Association of Punjab.

The government has come under fire for other programmes set up in recent months to reduce the number of abortions, which include setting up nationwide creches where people can abandon their unwanted daughters.

Chowdhury defended the plan, telling AFP: "Would you rather have them killed? I don't want them to die."

In New Delhi, housewife Seema says a baby girl, while not her first choice, will be welcomed with open arms.

"If it is a daughter, I will still keep her. I can't throw her away."