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A report by the UK charity says increasing numbers of female foetuses were being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die.
In one site in the Punjab state, there are just 300 girls to every 1,000 boys among higher caste families, it says.
ActionAid says India faces a "bleak" future if it does not end its practice of cultural preference for boys.
Girls 'condemned'
ActionAid teamed up with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to produce the Disappearing Daughters report.
More than 6,000 households in sites across five states in north-western India were interviewed and statistical comparisons were made with national census date.
Under "normal" circumstances, there should be about 950 girls for every 1,000 boys, the charity said.
But it said that in three of the five sites, that number was below 800.
In four of the five sites surveyed, the proportion of girls to boys had declined since a 2001 census, the report said.
The research also found that ratios of girls to boys were declining fastest in comparatively prosperous urban areas.
ActionAid suggested the...