Adverse Child Sex RatiosChallenges for Development

International Workshop on Feminist Economics in China and

India

Mary E John

The Adverse Child Sex Ratio

• Does the story begin with Amartya Sen?• Colonial north west India and female

infanticide• 1970s: Demographers discover long term

declines in overall sex ratios; correlated with poverty, low health and work patterns

• Women’s organisations and health activists discover abuse of amniocentesis testing for foetal abnormalities in 1982

The 1990s

• Joint activism by women and health groups results in first legislation against sex determination testing in Maharashtra in 1986

• 1991 Census data show a decline in both overall sex ratio to 927 and CSR (0-6) 945

• But north-western states CSR around 900• National law to regulate pre-natal diagnostic

techniques (PNDT Act) 1994

A new moment: 2001 Census

• For the first time national CSR drops to 927, below overall sex ratio (indeed overall sex ratio registers a small improvement to 933)

• Huge drops in states in north west India and especially in urban areas

• Wide scale adoption of sex selective abortion especially through ultrasound

• Also high rates of female child mortality in selective areas

• Uneven regional patterns

• “Prosperity Effect”

• Correlations of high education, lower fertility with skewed child sex ratios

• Two child norm

• Impunity of Medical Establishment

Problems

Responses

• State: PCPNDT Act (revised) in 2004• Various states launch Schemes for the

“girl child”• Religious and caste organisations now join

the fray, given very low CSRs among Sikhs and Hindus

• New researches both macro and micro• NGO campaigns• International focus

Planning Families, Planning Gender

• Study conducted by a team of researchers in low CSR districts in PU, HA, HP, RA, MP

• In depth analyses of contextual factors at work in these diverse contexts

• Ranging from poverty to affluence• Low CSRs especially among some groups and

sites• But not specific to particular castes and classes

Patterns of low CSR

• Diverse patterns

• Sex selection most prevalent and growing

• High female child mortality in pockets

• Cases of infanticide

Social Indicators

• Widespread schooling for girls

• Higher education in Pu, Hp, Ha, where girls even outnumber boys

• Low work participation rates overall

• Invisibility of women’s work

• Rising ages at marriage – 16 in MP and 21 in HP

Fertility Patterns

• Stated preferences “one boy, one girl”, weak in MP strong in HP

• Fertility declines everywhere to different degrees

• Revealed preferences: growing proportion of families with one boy, one girl; but also two boys, two boys, one girl…

Fertility (contd.)

• Tiny proportion of families willing to have only girls

• One son norm among families in Punjab

• “At least one son, at most one daughter”

• Not just son preference

• Daughter aversion

Why?

• Intergenerational transfer of resources

• New ‘costs’ of having a daughter with economic growth

• Education, health, care till adulthood

• Anxieties over daughter’s sexuality

• Marriage remains the compulsory institution

Problems and differences

• Aggressive use of technology by medical establishment locally and globally, ever newer technologies

• Shortage of “women” and “bare branches”

• Traditional and/or new forms of gender discrimination

• Ethics and language of choice

• Sex selection and the right to abortion

2011

• Predictions and speculations about Census 2011

• A turnaround or peaking of the practice?

• Or even more rampant effects of son preference and daughter aversion?

CHILD SEX RATIOS (0-6 years), NORTH-WESTERN REGIONCensus 1991, 2001 and 2011, Females per 1000 Males, Select States

State 1991 2001CHANGE2001-1991

2011CHANGE2011-2001

Himachal 951 896 -55 906 +10

Punjab 875 798 -77 846 +48

Haryana 879 819 -60 830 +11

Chandigarh 899 845 -46 867 + 22

Delhi 915 886 -49 888 + 2

CHILD SEX RATIOS (0-6 years), REGION-WISE

Census 1991, 2001 and 2011, Females per 1000 Males, Select States

Region States 1991 2001CHANGE2001-1991

2011CHANGE2011-2001

NORTH CENTRAL

Uttar Pradesh 928 916 -12 899 -17

Madhya Pradesh 952 932 -20 912 -20

WEST

Gujarat 928 883 -45 886 +3

Rajasthan 916 909 -7 883 -16

Maharashtra 946 913 -33 883 -30

Goa 964 938 -26 920 -18

EAST

Bihar 959 942 -17 933 -9

Jharkhand NA 965 943 -22

West Bengal 967 960 -7 950 -10

Nagaland 993 964 -29 944 -20

Orissa 967 953 -14 934 -19

SOUTH

Andhra Pradesh 975 961 -14 943 -18

Karnataka 960 946 -14 943 -3

Tamil Nadu 948 942 -6 946 +4

Kerala 958 960 +2 959 -1