The color supplements of India's English-language dailies are full of inspiring stories about women who have become pilots, entrepreneurs, engineers and lawyers. One such role model is Dr. Saroj Kumbhat, 45, a senior physician in Bombay's government-run medical service. She heads her own hospital and has a staff of 100 working under her. "It is easy for a woman to do well if there is determination," says Kumbhat. "But more than that, she needs support from her parents and the in-laws."

Most women in India, however, have little support from parents, in-laws or society at large. Like Kumbhat's patients from Bombay's slums, these women are ill, unwanted and struggling to stay alive. A report last week by the World Bank on women's health in India concludes that poverty and deeply etched social attitudes have produced a kind of hidden holocaust of the country's female population. For every 1,000 men in India there are only 927 women. That disparity, says the report, when applied to India's total population of nearly 950 million, means the country has 35 million fewer women than it should have.

What happened to them? The report is technically a survey of female health problems in India. But those are so severe, widespread and inextricably tangled with ignorance and social custom that it ends up a murder mystery: someone or something is killing--or murderously neglecting--the girls and young women of India. The closest thing to a single culprit is the dowry system, which makes a daughter a family burden and a son, who collects the dowry, an asset. But there are other factors, including the low level of education in the villages, where many girls meet their fate. "There is a significant gender-bias problem in India," says Anne Tinker, a health specialist and the main author of the report.

Countless Indian couples treasure their daughters, and even among the poor, the first female child is often considered a gift and a joy. Unfortunately, millions of other families view a daughter as a costly curse to be avoided or got rid of. The ways they do so are described by the World Bank in harrowing detail. The first chance comes when a wife is pregnant. Amniocentesis and ultrasound, techniques that allow couples to learn the sex of their unborn child, are becoming common in Indian cities. As in some other Asian countries, in India many families choose abortion when the fetus is female. Statistics are hard to gather, and while the practice was banned in 1994, the law is easily evaded. A 1990 study conducted by a Bombay hospital found that 96% of abortions performed after amniocentesis involved female fetuses. The World Bank estimates that such abortions could equal 1% of female births.

In the countryside, where 74% of the population live and tests to determine sex before birth aren't available, the more common practice is the drowning, poisoning or strangulation of newborn girls. In India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, the mortality rate for females under age five is 70% higher than that for males. Researchers found that in a handful of villages where the practice is acknowledged, about 10% of baby girls are murdered.

The majority of girls who perish in India are victims of parents who wish they would disappear. Daughters are almost always breast-fed for shorter periods than sons. Girls are given less food after weaning than boys. The inoculation rate for boys is higher. Daughters who get sick are often denied medical treatment. Shobha, 25, a resident of a slum in central Bombay, has a one-year-old daughter who has chronic fever. Shobha is anemic after two miscarriages and a childbirth within three years and barely has the strength to get her child to the clinic for treatment. Her husband won't help. "He doesn't care because it's a girl," says Shobha. "He beats me every day and says I killed his sons."

If a girl survives her teens, she has one last stop on this ride of horrors. As a wife, she will be expected to have a son--or several. Asha, 30, lives on a Bombay pavement with her six children--all girls--and her balloon-seller husband. The family can barely feed itself, but Asha's husband wants her to try yet again for a son and forbids her to be sterilized. In India husbands must give approval for sterilization. The report says multiple pregnancies are especially hazardous for Indian women, as many as 90% of whom are malnourished or anemic. Only 16% of rural women deliver in hospitals or clinics.

Economic progress and a change in traditional attitudes will be needed to halt the degradation of Indian women. Even more important, according to the report, is education: as female literacy rises, birthrates drop, life-spans increase, and the status of women is enhanced. "Changing people's minds is difficult," says Sarala Gopalan, secretary of the government's Department of Women and Child Development, "but there is hope." The government is trying to help. Since 1993, for instance, it has reserved one-third of all seats in village councils for women. Still, there is much to do: only 39% of India's girls can read, in contrast to 64% of boys. And only half as many girls as boys complete the first five years of primary school. Learning more is literally a matter of life and death.

--Reported by Meenakshi Ganguly/Bombay