Indicus Analytics: The missing daughters

With its sex ratio dismally skewed towards males, changing India’s ingrained gender bias against the girl child requires concerted action within communities

The issue of India’s declining sex ratio has been a cause of concern for decades. After falling continuously from 972 females per 1,000 males in 1901 to 927 females per 1,000 males in 1991, the sex ratio in India picked up marginally in 2001 to 933. However, the 2001 data showed a massive drop in sex ratio among children in the age-group 0-6 years — from 945 to 927 over the decade. The preference for a son has been an established fact in Indian society for generations. Such a sharp fall in the child sex ratio, however, pointed to a much more alarming phenomenon of modern medical technology being used to ensure a boy child.
 

GENDER GAPS
Year	Sex ratio (India)	Country	Ratio
1901	972	India	931
1921	955	China	936
1941	945	Pakistan	944
1961	941	Bangladesh	953
1981	934	Nepal	1,018
1991	927	Sri Lanka	1,023
2001	933	Source: UNPD World Population Prospects 2006 (International Estimates), figure for ’05
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2009

The 2001 Census showed that Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh had less than 850 girls for every 1,000 boys in the age-group 0-6 years. In 1991, no district in India had less than 800 girls to every 1,000 boys; in 2001, there were 14 districts with this dubious distinction, the worst being Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab with a child sex ratio of 766. At the other end of the spectrum stood the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim, along with Chhattisgarh with a child sex ratio of more than 975 — all these states have a culture for gender equality and strong tribal communities. This clearly points to the fact that though laws exist and governments have to ensure law enforcement and put in incentives for the girl child, the change in the northern states has to come from within the communities.(Click for graph)

Interestingly, the District-Level Household Survey 2007-08 asked women what their preference for their next child would be. While 36.3 per cent of women across India chose the option “does not matter”, 33.2 per cent continued to prefer a boy; 19.5 per cent responded that it was up to God, and just 11 per cent put in a strong preference for a girl. However, these are national averages and the differences are wide across the states. So while the southern states came up on the top answering no preference, those positively in favour of a girl once again came from the north-eastern states.
 

MULTIPLE CHOICE
Percentage of currently married women who desire to have the next child by sex preference

Boy

Girl Does not matter Up to god Rajasthan44.0Manipur23Tamil Nadu72.6Daman & Diu39 Madhya 
Pradesh42.8Sikkim23Lakshadweep65.5Jammu & Kashmir37.4 Tripura20.4Puducherry63.8Dadra & 
Nagar Haveli34.2 Manipur42.1Mizoram19.9Andhra 
Pradesh62.2 Bihar41.1Assam,
West Bengal18.1Jharkhand33.9 Tripura38.5Kerala61.9Bihar32 India33.2India11India36.3India19.5 District-Level Household Survey 2007-08

What is again striking is the fact that the difference between the percentage of women who prefer a boy as their next child and those who prefer a girl was large in the following states — Bihar (41.1 against 6.8 per cent), Gujarat (36.6 against 8.5 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (42.8 against 8.7 per cent), Rajasthan (44.0 against 9.2 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (37.9 against 8.6 per cent), Orissa (35.7 against 9.0 per cent), Uttarakhand (35.1 against 8.2 per cent), Punjab (33.4 against 7.0 per cent) and Jharkhand (35.1 against 9.7 per cent). Again, in most cases, northern states stand out in this preference ranking. In Haryana around 33 per cent showed preference for a boy and less than 10 per cent chose the girl option. While media reports point to Haryana grooms already having to resort to bride imports from other states, it remains to be seen how far societies in these states can change their ingrained bias against the girl child.

Indian States Development Scorecard, a weekly feature by Indicus Analytics, focuses on the progress in India and across the states across various socio-economic parameters

sumita@indicus.net