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TRANSCRIPT
INDIA-‐ DECLINE IN SEX RATIO Group 8
Daniel Collins Durgesh kumar singh Yueh-‐Ting Liao
2010
Sustainable Rural and Urban Development
Royal Institute of Technology 2010-‐12-‐10
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CONTENT
1) Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3
2) Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3
3) Factors influencing sex ratio of India………………………………………………………………………………..6
i. Role of social and traditional factors in influencing sex ratio……………………………….7
ii. Role of education in influencing sex ratio……………………………………………………………8
iii. Role of technology in influencing sex ratio………………………………………………………..12
iv. Influence of state economic situation on sex ratio of states…………………………….13
4) Plan and scheme developed to improve the condition…………………………………………….……15
i. Legal act to control sex selective abortion……………………………………………….…15
ii. Universal female education……………………………………………………………………..…16
iii. Palna – Cradle baby Scheme……………………………………………….………………………16
iv. Dhan laxmi programme………………………………………………….……………………………17
v. Beti Bachao Abhiyan…………………………………………………..……………………………….17
vi. Beti Bachao Abhiyan……………………………………………………….…………..………………17
vii. Law against dowry……………………………………………………………………………………….17
viii. Woman reservation…………………………………………………………………………………….17
5) Probable impact of declination of sex ratio in future………………………………….….…………….18
6) Discussion…………………………………………………………….…………………………….……………….…………19
7) The probable way to improve sex ratio …………………………………………………………………….…..20
8) References………………………………………………………………………………….………………………….………22
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ABSTRACT
Increase in population in India going together with the decline in the sex ratio. This declination in the ratio is gaining more attention in recent times due to the realization for its ability to influence whole structure of the society where the population of female is decreasing tremendously. Few of the states in India suffering from high fall in sex ratio which raise question for the future situation there. There is district like Daman & Diu which has 591 females for 1000 males. Which raise many complicated questions for the society and for future? Here an effort has been done to explain the situation and probable reason which causing the down fall in the sex ratio to better understand the situation of the country.
INTRODUCTION
We know the India’s population is increasing rapidly and has occupied second place in world after china for population. But increasing population is not only the concern but also the increase in the difference in the population of male and females are raising the question for social problems for the future. India is suffering as one of the countries of the world with poor sex ratio between man and woman which express high declination of the population of women as compare to man.
Sex ratio of selected countries Country Sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) 1 China 944 2 India 933 3 U.S.A. 1,029 4 Indonesia 1,004 5 Brazil 1,025 6 Pakistan 938 7 Russian Fed. 1,140 8 Bangladesh 953 9 Japan 1,041 10 Nigeria 1,016 11 world 986 Source: Provisional population totals, sex composition of India(chapter 6) Census of India 2001,series1
Imbalance of the sex composition in society may impose tremendous changes in the different structure and parameter of the society and it may also bring potential changes in the tradition and values of the many aspects. According to the information provided by sex composition of India, [(chapter 6), Census
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of India 2001] the sex ratio at the beginning of the twentieth century was 972 and thereafter showed continuous decline until 1941. In 1951 there was a marginal increase of one point, but thereafter it again dropped for two consecutive decades to reach 930 in 1971. Infect, between 1961-‐71, the country saw the sharpest decline of 11 points in the sex ratio. Thereafter, it has fluctuated marginally around 930 in successive censuses.( sex composition of India, census of India 2001)
Sex ratio, India: 1901 – 2001 Census year Sex ratio
(Females per 1,000 males) 1901 972 1911 964 1921 955 1931 950 1941 945 1951 946 1961 941 1971 930 1981 934 1991 927 2001 933
Source: Provisional population totals, sex composition of India (chapter 6) Census of India 2001,series1
This way we can make an assumption on how the demographic structure of India is changing with the time. Here many issues in the society may have been found to be related with the changes in this structure .Further in the paper we would be trying to relate this declination in sex ratio and other factors in countries which has influence on it.
In India the problem of this sex ratio is not dispersed equally all the places, there are some regions which has been facing more severe problem for decline in ratio and some of the regions even have high sex ratio with more population of woman, which make the study interesting to do. We are not sure that we would be able to answer everything but this study may help us to get a closer view of the scenario.
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Sex Ratio (Females per 1000 males)
Sl. No. India / States / Union Territories 1991 2001
INDIA 927 933
1 Jammu and Kashmir 896 900
2 Himachal Pradesh 976 970
3 Punjab 882 874
4 Chandigarh 790 773
5 Uttaranchal 936 964
6 Haryana 865 861
7 Delhi 827 821
8 Rajasthan 910 922
9 Uttar Pradesh 876 898
10 Bihar 907 921
11 Sikkim 878 875
12 Arunachal Pradesh 859 901
13 Nagaland 886 909
14 Manipur 958 978
15 Mizoram 921 938
16 Tripura 945 950
17 Meghalaya 955 975
18 Assam 923 932
19 West Bengal 917 934
20 Jharkhand 922 941
21 Orissa 971 972
22 Chhatisgarh 985 990
23 Madhya Pradesh 912 920
24 Gujarat 934 921
25 Daman & Diu 969 709
26 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 952 811
27 Maharashtra 934 922
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28 Andhra Pradesh 972 978
29 Karnataka 960 964
30 Goa 967 960
31 Lakshadweep 943 947
32 Kerala 1036 1058
33 Tamil Nadu 974 986
34 Pondicherry 979 1001
35 Andaman & Nicobar Islands* 818 846
Sl. No. India / States / Union Territories 1991 2001 (Source-‐ Census of India, 2001)
After studying the above mentioned table we can make assumption that several local factor and difference in cultural, economical, educational factor in different area are contributing to the declination in the sex ratio of its region. This decrease in population of a particular sex (female) is largely because of abortion and infanticide. This sex selective abortion and infanticide is result of many factors which are also interrelated to each other.
Factors influencing sex ratio in India
The sex ratio of India gets influenced by many factors. Infact the present scenario is found to have contribution of various factors like social, economic, education and religious nature of people which also goes with technology innovation.
1. Role of social and traditional factors in influencing sex ratio
The whole world is divided into different countries not only on the basis of physical boundaries between them even the culture and tradition of the country also make a demarcation between the countries. India is a big and different country with different social and traditional concept which provides it uniqueness than others. The traditional and social life has a great influence on the gender ratio in India. Here we would like to describe you different aspect of social factor and how it is influencing sex ratio.
High desire for son child
As one of the member in our group work is Indian and in his own experience Indian is the county where people have more preferences for the son as compare to daughter, there are various reasons existing which intensify their desire for a son child. Sons are considered vital to continue the family lineage
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(gotra) and often the family activities. Sons are also assured to inherit their parental properties where daughters are excluded from there after her marriage. Many families’ important rituals performed by only son in the family like rituals upon death of parents (funeral fire) which provide them prominent role in the family and enhance their prestige. A son less parent also faces a pressure from the society to have a son. As opposite to it ,daughter are not considered permanent member of the family where she born as after marriage is belong to the family lineage of her husband instead of the family where was born. And also girls are perceived as vulnerable, as family honor seems to rest on women’s behavior rather on men. Also girls are considering girl for other house as the girl move to his husband family house once she get married. Because of this nature of society the girl take care of other family and support other family instead of his parental family which make her position less important for the family where she born. This makes a less desire for a girl child and increases the desire for want of a son.
Monetary value for son and daughter on Indian society
Also having son is always considered economic development for the family. In Indian society still a big population of the country does not prefer their daughter to go for job and work. But for son there is no restriction, so this way if a son is born than it is assumed to have one more hand for family financial aid and preferred over a daughter. Also girl move to his husband family after marriage so it is also consider a non-‐benefitting investment on daughter. Dowry system makes marriage of system in Indian tradition more expensive where girl family has to pay cash money, gold jewelry, accessories to groom’s family and also bear maximum part expense of marriage. This way girl marriage becomes very expensive for her family. And also a suitable groom with better job and family background demand for high dowry so this way it become more expensive to find a better groom for the daughter. And opposite to this sons are considered beneficial as they bring dowry for the family which means a good financial improvement for the son family. Marriage is very expensive occasion in India and dowry rate is also very high so this way situation favors more on male as compare to females. It is always said to invest at the place where you have maximum profit not at the place of loss, so here the traditional and social aspect make girls as a burden on a family where boy get the important position.
So these demands for son promote people to go for sex selective abortion and infanticide in case fetus is a girl .This is a reason which is prevailing in the society for declination of female population.
2. Role of education in influencing sex ratio Christophe Z (2007) did a research of the relationship between mother’s education and sex ratio of birth.
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(source: Christophe Z Guilmoto, Characteristics of sex-‐ratio imbalance in India and future scenarios,2007)
From the above table, we see the trend that the higher the mother’s education is, the abnormal sex ratio it is. However, as we knew the low power of Indian women, there is a doubt that how much a role as a mother can affect the situation here. If education can play the role, all powerful people in the decision making of the family should be considered, and it will be husband and his original family, not the wife. Due to the limitation of field survey in this project, we made the survey based on state statistic by Indian government, to find out the relationship between sex ratio and literacy rate.
From the census data of sex ratio from Indian government, and the literacy data, we can make a comparison table:
region Female sex ratio Literacy Rates(male/female)
India 933 75.26/53.67
Rural 946 70.70/46.13
Urban 900 86.27/72.86
State with highest female sex ratio Kerala 1058 94.24/87.72
State with lowest female sex ratio Haryana 861 78.49/55.73
UT with Highest Female Sex Ratio pondicherry 1001 88.62/73.90
UT with Lowest Female Sex Ratio Daman & Diu 710 86.76/65.61
Mother’s education level Sex ratio of birth on 2000
Illiterate 108.7
Literate but below primary 110.0
Middle but below matric/secondary 113.0
Matric/secondary but below graduate 115.3
Graduate and above 114.1
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To be more precise, we look at the sex ratio data from each state:
The sex ratio source of state is from the statistic of “Number of women and ever married women by present age, parity and total children ever born. “ (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/F_series/Ever_married.htm, accessed 2010.12.01)
To see the relationship between education and sex birth rate, we compare with the statistic of literacy per state. (source from : Indian Education Statistics http://education.nic.in/stats/SES-‐school-‐2007-‐08.pdf , accessed at: 2010.12.01)
regional\birth rate Male Female
sex Ratio (female/male)
sex ratio ranking
Literacy rate
Literacy ranking
Andaman & Nicobar Islands 128511 120325 93,63% 10 78,70% 5Andhra Pradesh 29277338 27054902 92,41% 21 54,50% 30Arunachal Pradesh 411313 392344 95,39% 7 47,83% 34Assam 10548299 9597071 90,98% 26 59,73% 24Bihar 35253829 30782747 87,32% 33 43,92% 36Chandigarh 300416 263837 87,82% 31 60,48% 22Chhattisgarh 9349395 8939332 95,61% 6 75,58% 8Dadra & Nagar Haveli 76478 73244 95,77% 4 49,34% 33Daman & Diu 54185 50665 93,50% 12 75,83% 7Delhi 5059566 4406592 87,09% 34 78,05% 6Goa 489043 457330 93,52% 11 79,67% 4Gujarat 20985691 18616935 88,71% 30 61,29% 21Haryana 9668122 8388950 86,77% 35 63,19% 19Himachal Pradesh 2737619 2531272 92,46% 20 75,08% 9India 435098421 393793145 90,51% 27 58,74% 26Jammu & Kashmir 3820286 3438635 90,01% 28 49,78% 32Jharkhand 10874166 9916954 91,20% 24 45,74% 35Karnataka 21745095 20258321 93,16% 15 59,33% 25Kerala 13 489 917 12900720 95,63% 5 90,04% 1Lakshadweep 28126 26120 92,87% 16 85,04% 2Madhya Pradesh 28542655 26024988 91,18% 25 57,80% 27Maharashtra 40113898 36719806 91,54% 23 70,36% 11Manipur 772643 725022 93,84% 9 67,29% 14Meghalaya 847345 830424 98,00% 1 56,29% 28Mizoram 347496 337708 97,18% 2 81,27% 3Nagaland 682279 636816 93,34% 14 62,79% 20Orissa 15 384 645 14363550 93,36% 13 59,84% 23Pondicherry 391201 369698 94,50% 8 73,98% 10Punjab 10222908 8653887 84,65% 36 64,72% 17Rajasthan 26896217 24072798 89,50% 29 55,34% 29Sikkim 190823 183540 96,18% 3 66,82% 15Tamil Nadu 23214943 21513088 92,67% 17 66,21% 16Tripura 1279126 1184009 92,56% 18 69,72% 12Uttar Pradesh 73956933 64942572 87,81% 32 52,53% 31Uttaranchal 3807555 3522354 92,51% 19 68,07% 13West Bengal 34150359 31496585 92,23% 22 63,42% 18
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There are some gaps between “sex birth rate for all age women have given birth” and “sex ratio in the area”, because of the migration, morality rate…etc., which makes those four zones are not in the extreme cases here. However, we still can see that even we probably can say the highest sex ratio state Kerala has least illiteracy rate, but for the lowest sex ratio state Haryana, the illiteracy rate is actually not so bad among all. (And even with deviation, the sex birth ratio in Haryana is the second lowest here as well)
From above, we made a plot to show the relationship between two. If we sort by sex ratio, we got this plot,
0,00%
20,00%
40,00%
60,00%
80,00%
100,00%
120,00%
Meghalay
aSik
kimKe
rala
Arun
achal Prade
shManipur
Goa
Orissa
Karnataka
Tamil Na
duUttaranchal
Andh
ra Pr
adesh
Maharashtra
Madhya P
rade
shIndia
Rajas
than
Chandigarh
Bihar
Haryana
Ratio (female/male)
Literacy rate
If we sort by literacy rate, we got:
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0,00%
20,00%
40,00%
60,00%
80,00%
100,00%
120,00%
Kerala
Mizo
ram
Andaman & Nico
bar Isla
nds
Daman & Diu
Himachal P
rade
shMaharashtra
Uttaranchal
Sikkim
Punjab
Haryana
Gujar
atOr
issa
Karnataka
Madhya P
rade
shRajas
than
Uttar P
rade
shDa
dra &
Nagar Haveli
Jharkhand
Ratio (female/male)
Literacy rate
There is no obvious trend line for one when we sort the other, so it is hardly to say the real relationship between sex ratio and literacy rate by above plot.
3. Role of technology in influencing sex ratio
Hereby we discuss about “how” Indian people can decrease the female ratio.
As the development of bio-‐technology(George, SM,2006), there are some ways to decide the gender before pregnancy: selective implantation of embryos of desired sex by embryo-‐sorting technique , PGD(Zitner A. 2002), sophisticated methodology of separation of semen.
During pregnancy, several medical technologies can assist of sex detection: from 6 week to trimester, there is a non-‐invasive method of fetal sex determination; on 10th week, expensive chorionic villus can be sampled, between 15-‐17 weeks, amniocentesis can be performed; from 16 weeks, obstetric ultra-‐sonography can be applied as well. Following the sex-‐detection, the well-‐known sex-‐based selection abortion can play its role. This stage raises high risks not only for female fetal but also mother’s lives due to unsafe abortion.” Pregnancy-‐related morbidity and mortality account for 136,000 maternal deaths annually”— Garg S et al (2008).
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Sex determination
Technology When can it be performed?
implantation embryo-‐sorting technique , PGD
Embryos and semen stage
detection non-‐invasive method of fetal sex determination
6 to 12 weeks
chorionic villus sampling
10th week
amniocentesis 15-‐17th week
obstetric ultra-‐sonography
16th week
abortion many pregnancy
1972 (MP Act): Medical Termination of pregnancy
1994(PNDT act): Pre-‐Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act: a central legislation repealed it from
By the report from unicef(2007), “foetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by unethical medical professionals has today grown into a Rs. 1,000 crore industry (US$ 244 million)”, the PCPNDT Act banning sex selection in 2003, which, interestingly, there have been only two convictions 4 years after it announced. There are two possibilities for that: one, everyone in India changed their mind on the same day the Act announced. The other is the lack enforcement of the law. Before we make the judgment, Sachs S (2001) has reported that it is emerging that there are sex-‐determination advertisement in sex-‐equity Western world to attract their Indian friends.
The next challenge for a girl is to grow up. According to Garg S et al (2008), in extreme situation, a mother has less ability to breastfeed. And in non-‐extreme situation, when a daughter is sick, she gets less attention by sending to spending lesser money on medical and seeing less qualified doctors.
If this girl is strong enough to pass all these discrimination and mal-‐nutrients, gets married. She will start to become a belonging of husband’s family, and serves for whole family. Her husband is socially acceptable to punish her if he wants; he has no problem to have affairs with countless girls, but if she does, it’s a big shame of her and family. As an important property to generate babies, or, boys, she repeats her mother’s density cycle again: all process to make sure she will give birth to a boy.
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4. Influence of state economic situation on sex ratio of states
Large Indian states that have a low female percentage
Punjab -‐ 874 females per 1000 males
Chandigarh (Capital of Punjaband haryanaa ) -‐ 773 females per 1000 males
Punjab is one of the most fertile regions on earth and one of India’s wealthiest states. Because of this it
has the lowest poverty and hunger level in India. It also has the highest level of infrastructure in India
with a medium quality network of road, rail, electricity, water and sewer in most parts of the state.
Punjab is dominated by ‘Sikhs’ who own a significant part of the land and businesses. The main industry
in Punjab is agriculture with a smaller industrial operation than most other India states.
Haryana -‐ 861 females per 1000 males
Haryana is considered to be one of the most industrialized states in India and is a strong base for
manufacturing, retailing and information outsourcing. The city of Gurgaon in Haryana is considered the
best city for setting up a software centers in India and now ranks third for overall software exports.
Although the state has a developing service industry 70% of the population are still employed in the
agriculture industry with Haryana being a major producer of wheat and rice in India.
Uttar Pradesh -‐ 898 females per 1000 males
Uttar Pradesh is the third largest state economy in India and a major contributor to India’s agricultural
output. The state’s population mostly depends upon farming activities and although the state has a
substantial GDP it has the second lowest GDP per capita with 40 percent of the total population living
below the poverty line. Uttar Pradesh has a developing electronics industry and is now considered the
'IT-‐Hub' of North India.
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Sikkim -‐ 875 females per 1000 males
Like the majority of India Sikkim’s economy is mostly dependent on agricultural activities. The state has
a very rough terrain making agriculture more difficult than many other parts of India. There is a lack of
infrastructure and no airport or rail network within Sikkim contributing to the reasons why there have
been no substantial industries developed. Although the state has no major developing employment it
has a growth rate of 8.3% which is the second highest in India due to the border with Nepal.
large Indian states that have a high female percentage
Kerala -‐ 1058 females per 1000 males
The service industry dominates the Kerala economy although there is a substantial agriculture presence.
The state has the highest literacy and Human Development Index in India. Although Kerala is one of the
more advanced states there are relatively few corporations and manufacturing plants with
headquartered in the state. The higher education rate in Kerala has meant now that one in six local
workers now work overseas.
The effect of India’s economy on female infanticide
Although the results are not linear it seems that the wealthier the state is in India the higher the chance
of female infanticide. The impression that wealthier families may be more able to afford to pay a dowry
and raise female children therefore there will be a higher rate of females in the communities is untrue.
Unfortunately it seems that because wealthier families have greater access to medical practices such as
ultrasounds and abortions they have a higher chance of female infanticide. But still it is not sure and it’s
just a small assumption.
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Plan and scheme promoted by India to improve gender ratio
Indian realized this problem during the 70s and started taking preventive measures to improve the sex ratio, but still till 90s much of focus was not given except making some laws but now it has been realized important to handle the situation as soon as possible or it would make whole country to suffer a drastic changes in the socities.we would highlight some of the important and interesting way by which government trying to improve the condition.
1. Legal act to control sex selective abortion
Evolution of Laws
1976: The Centre banned sex-‐determination tests in government facilities.
1988: The Maharashtra Pre-‐Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, followed by similar acts by the governments of Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana
1994: The Punjab Pre-‐Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Control & Regulation) Act
1994: The Pre-‐Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Bill (introduced in Parliament in 1991, passed in 1994)
1996, January 1: Enforcement of central Act in Punjab
December 1997: The Directorate of Health Services and Family Welfare, Punjab is appointed the authority to implement the Act
Meanwhile, the IPC recognizes Female Infanticide as a punishable offence under the Indian law
Key steps
• The Centre banned sex-‐determination tests in government facilities 1976
• As abortion is considered as one of the major reason for the sex selective abortion which is inducing declination in sex so giving or taking prenatal tests, including ultrasound scanning to determine the sex of the foetus was criminalized by Indian law in 1994. In 2002, the penalties were made up to three years in jail and a Rs. 10,000 fine for the first offense and five years’ imprisonment and Rs. 50,000 for the second. Government induced the plan but it was not very effective as still illegal abortion is happening at a large scale. (Source-‐
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_India).
2. Universal female education
In 1994, the Government of India passed a universal female education bill that offers parents incentives for access and punishment for keeping a girl out of school. In another important initiative, the government also announced free and reduced cost education for girls. The program has been designed with the aim to offer free education at high school level to all girls of single child families. The offer also includes provisions for fellowships of US$ 45 per month for those undertaking post-‐graduate studies .(source-‐http://www.savegirlchild.org/right-‐of-‐education.html)
3. Palna – Cradle baby Scheme
In 2007 the government of India announced Palna –Cradle baby scheme for saving girl child. Under the proposed scheme, government is planning to open a center in each district where the parents can leave their daughter if they do not want a girl baby and do not want to bring up themselves. The state will take care of those babies (source-‐ http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=25783)
4. Dhan laxmi programme
The Government of India announce Dhan laxmi programme to encourage families for better up bring of their girl child and to educate her. Under the scheme a significant amount will be paid to the family on fulfilling specific conditions including birth registration, immunisation, school enrolment and delay marriage of the girl child till the age of 18 years. Under the Dhan Laxmi scheme an insurance cover to the tune of Rs 1 lakh would be provided for the girl child at her birth and in all, cash package of around Rs 2 lakh will be provided to the girl's family, preferably to the mother, through the scheme
(source-‐ http://www.igovernment.in/site/india-‐announces-‐cash-‐incentive-‐to-‐save-‐girl-‐child)
5. Beti Bachao Abhiyan” (Save the Daughter) Campaign on Gujarat
Campaign in 2005 took the initiative of establishing personal contact with people from all walks of life; particularly the ones belonging to the affluent class and motivated them to stop the abominable practice of sex selection and female foeticide (source-‐ http://www.unicef.org/india/media_3284.htm)
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6. Beti Bachao Abhiyan
The recast Balika Samriddhi Yojana will be a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme to extend 100% central assistance to States/Union Territories to provide benefits under the Scheme in accordance with the norms, guidelines and conditions laid down by the Central Government.(source-‐ Ministry of woman and child development, India ,http://wcd.nic.in/)
• To change negative family and community attitudes towards the girl child at birth and towards her mother.
• To improve enrolment and retention of girl children in schools. • To raise the age of girls to marry. • To assist the girl to undertake income generating activities
7. Law against dowry
In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code to make it easier for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husband's family. The Dowry Prohibition (DP) Act prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry, "as consideration for the marriage". where "dowry" is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal. Asking or giving of dowry can be punished by an imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to Rs. 15000 or the amount of dowry whichever is higher and imprisonment up to 5 years.(source-‐ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry_law_in_India)
8. Woman reservation
To improve the condition of the Indian woman and to empower them, government implemented reservation of seats for woman in government job and educational institute. To enhance the participation of woman in local community’s decision making, government has made reservation of 33 % of seat for woman in local village government (panchayat election).There is also process going on to make reservation for woman in parliament. This woman empowerment in society will help to change the role of woman in decision making process and enhance their condition which may become a tool to improve the woman demand in the society. Women participation in decision making process will make them to put the issues where they feel themselves neglected in society.
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Probable impact of declination of sex ratio in future
Due to social and economic reasons stated above, there are more Indian boys than girls given birth, or, able to growing up. The first obvious impact will be in the marriage market. Girls are rare, at least not enough for each guy to find his wife. There could be both sides for this, in bright side, it will be a trend that boys need to compete more to catch girls, and this competition can potentially raise the respect to girls, at least before marriage. Because when girls are fewer, proportionally beautiful or better background girls are even fewer. Indian marriage is through two ways: family arrangement and free love, and the former is still dominant than the latter. When it comes to family arrangement, Indian girl’s family tends to marry their daughter to richer or higher social class family than the lower ones. Indian boy’s families compare which girl’s family can pay more in the marriage, or from which girl they can gain the most benefit. According to study in previous chapters, richer families have even lower rate to have daughters. If there are more rich boys’ families than girls’, the material living standard of girls can be predictably expected after marriage. That is, the girls not only have better choice in choosing their husbands, but also have chances to upgrade their material lives by marriage much more than their mothers or grandmothers. In this sense, sooner or later, girls accumulate the feeling that they deserve and will marry much better guys than guys in her living circle. She raises her standard in picking husband. If some guys around her get crush on her but could not provide higher material lives, they will start to please her in some ways, to get her by free love, which is starting accepted in urban area. Also because he probably knows, if he could not get his classmates he likes, he has more possibilities to marry someone not better than her by family arrangement. Once the competition starts, it will make a trend. First of all, the most beautiful girls are treated differently, but limited edition is crucial. By natural biologically, boys will start to find the beauty inside different girls, and change the attitude in the way girls prefer. How about for boys? Richer ones still have high market values, so not so many impacts. But how if a boy who was born in the poor family, with lowest socioeconomic class and limited education? Can he even get a wife? There are lots of rural workers working in urban area, and most of them are male. Will there be any urban girl willing to marry them? It is highly doubted. One of the ways they can do is to back to their village and get a girl there. But they have no job there that’s why they move to urban. Can his salary in urban afford the cost for whole family so he can bring her to city? Most of the girl in rural area does not have adequate education, not to mention to getting an appropriate job in a city. If they want money, they do not have wives; if they want wives, they do not have money. The imbalance of resource distribution problem will be even worse in this sense. At this stage, maybe more people start to realize the importance of girls, and the families start to welcome their daughters. Above are optimistic assumptions, unfortunately, we see more practical evidences in negative impacts. Hesketh T et al (2006) said in their paper: “It is a consistent finding across cultures that an overwhelming percentage of violent crime is perpetrated by young, unmarried, low-‐status males.”, they also cited other scholar’s papers to prove the relationship between “young, unmarried, low-‐status males” or”low sex-‐ratio” with “crime, homicide, violence, murder” and even “large scale of violence in regional,
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national or even global level.” There is also one negative possibility: for the time between scarcities of women to gender equity, people who have power and make rules are still the men, especially rich, old and old-‐fashion ones. If they have thought women as properties, then they will treat the situation as how they treat other rare resources: centralized control, and maximize their own profit from it. One prediction is the worsen situation of women and children trafficking, including trafficking to prostitute or marriage. Women can be taken as bait in some senses, and when the situation goes extreme, they might start to enhance one woman be shared with many guys without asking her will. The extreme situation refers to when unstable of society endangers the power of profit holders. As experts warned
“…demographic crisis will lead to increasing sexual violence and abuse against women and female children, trafficking, increasing number of child marriages, increasing maternal deaths due to abortions and early marriages and increase in practices like polyandry….” (unicef, C2007)
Worsen sex ratio balance can lead both good and bad results, unfortunately it’s hard to predict which will happen first, or in most places. Apparently, this will make the power balance change, and we do not know which side it will be. However, women empowerment and raising girl birth and living rate are crucial to India. In the next chapter we will discuss what plans have been taken or are going to take places in India, and followed by our suggestions for nowadays problems.
Discussion
The measure was taken to reduce sex selective abortion by making law to prevent sex determination. But it was not very successful. The result we have is not very satisfactory. The reason lies that the people still want to determine the sex of the child before birth and they use illegal mean to determine the sex of foetus. But may be the main social reason lie behind is that women are considered burden on family which provide a weaker situation to the woman. Probably female are not paid attention because of her fragile condition and mans are instead assumed better for a family development and prestigious. It could be assumed as the conceptual idea of the society which needs gradual improvement to make better condition of the woman. Having son and daughter has become moreover a subject of marketing process to bring loss and gain which is greatly affecting the balance between the different sexes. Son is considered as a better investment in all aspect as compare to woman. It’s the matter of attitude and thinking of people toward woman .Inspite of successfully implementation of many example of improvement in the condition of woman, the condition of women is found with less improvement in the region of the highly effected area for poor sex ratio. Due to the personal experience of the one of the member in our group it is observed that ,in states with better ratio, the woman have more prominent role in market ,jobs and other sector and also they are much aware toward their right and political activity than the worst effected part ,the governance system is also observed to be in better condition
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which may better promote many policies to be effective for the betterment of the woman there. In the region with poor ratio, the condition is little different where the corruption have been observed more than the better ratio’s region which may not allow proper implementation of the many policies because of that even many of them become failure. Also because of lack of proper governance system the many of the law implemented are not followed properly. These do not provide the pushing factor for the uplifting of the status of the woman there. Sex determination is illegal but still it is not found very tough to do it illegally. The reason for having better sex ratio in Kerala is most probably due to the changes in the mind-‐set of the people due to betterment of the woman condition and position in the society where they are also holding a good position there.
So in end we would say that the many law and regulation enforced are not implemented properly which need a strict surveillance and also enhancement in the condition and status of woman is observed to be achieved at some regions and not achieved equally throughout the country so need is to enhance the woman status equally throughout the country.
The probable way to improve sex ratio
To make improvement in gender ratio it would be more important to provide a change in the status of the woman and this need improvement in their image of being burden. A society walks on a basic idea taking the idea as a direction. Once the society has observed woman as a loss in monetary value and burden on them they would most probably try to avoid the problem. But if woman is considered worthy and asset than may be it would increase the girl demand in the society. The girl are considered less valuable as we never realize their position and importance in the society and in fact society is more over focussing on only the cost value of a woman. Women are equally important as man in the society and have an equal role to sustain this society. There would be two things which can help in improving the problem; one is to make realization to the society about the importance of woman in family, their worthiness and role for everyone. A change in attitude and perception is required to upgrade the situation for woman and second is to enhance and improve the condition of woman further with providing support and making example of their worthiness as equal as man. The tools which can be used to furnish these objectives would be mass campaign with more people participation; also need is to provide importance to the work of woman and to spread their importance in society. Tool for upgrading the status of woman also includes better enhancement of opportunity of woman participation in the education, jobs and decision making process with a good status for woman. Woman participation in decision making process would enable them to bring the issues where they feel themselves neglected in society. There is need to make a mix society with equal participation of woman and man which can help to reduce the differences in the status of two opposite sex into the society. Also need is to take the help of law and enforcement to provide a security to promote growing woman condition so that they can be made stronger.
There is a need of effective law against many prevailing curse on woman in society like dowry, sex
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determination, basic rights etc. which are not found very effectively in current scenario and are limited as law with no practical implementation. Today the marriages are going on with dowry and whole society know but still there is no action. So may be a hard implementation of law and regulation along with change in mind set up could be a considered as an approach for improving the existing problem of woman scarcity.
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