8.3. Declining sex ratio in India

The sex ratio is an important indicator of gender balance in the population.

SEX RATIO TRENDS IN INDIA

The Sex Ratio in the country has shown an improvement. As per the Census, sex ratio has increased from 933 females per thousand males in 2001 to 943 females per thousand males in 2011. State/UT-wise details of sex ratio are annexed.

As per the Census, 2011 the child sex ratio (0-6 years) has shown a decline from 927 females per thousand males in 2001 to 919 females per thousand males in 2011.

Some of the reasons for neglect of girl child and low child sex ratio are son preference and the belief that it is only the son who can perform the last rites, that lineage and inheritance runs through the male line, sons will look after parents in old age, men are the bread winners etc. Exorbitant dowry demand is another reason for female foeticide/infanticide. Small family norm

coupled with easy availability of sex determination tests may be a catalyst in the declining child sex ratio, further facilitated by easy availability of Pre-conception sex selection facilities.

Refer Table T5 and T6.

Several factors may be held responsible for the decline in the child sex ratio including – severe neglect of girl babies in infancy, leading to higher death rates; sex specific abortions that prevent girl babies from being born; and female infanticide (or the killing of girl babies due to religious or cultural beliefs). Each of these reasons point to a serious social problem, and there is some evidence that all of these have been at work in India. Practices of female infanticide have been known to exist in many regions, while increasing importance is being attached to modern medical techniques by which the sex of the baby can be determined in the very early stages of pregnancy. The availability of the sonogram (an x-ray like diagnostic device based on ultra-sound technology), originally developed to identify genetic or other disorders in the fetus, may be used to identify and selectively abort female foetus.

The regional pattern of low child sex ratios seems to support this argument. It is striking that the lowest child sex ratios are found in the most prosperous regions of India. Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra are among the richest states of India in terms of per capita incomes, and they are also the states with the lowest child sex ratios. So the problem of selective abortions is not due to poverty or ignorance or lack of resources. For example, if practices like dowry mean that parents have to make large dowry payments to marry off their daughters, then prosperous parents would be the ones most able to afford this.

However, strikingly the sex ratio is lowest in the most prosperous regions. It is also possible (though this issue is still being researched) that as economically prosperous families decide to have fewer children – often only one or two now – they may also wish to choose the sex of their child. This becomes possible with the availability of ultra-sound technology, although the government has passed strict laws banning this practice and imposing heavy fines and imprisonment as punishment. Known as the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, this law has been in force since 1996, and has been further strengthened in 2003. However, in the long run the solution to problems like the bias against girl child depends more on how social attitudes evolve, besides laws and rules.