Adverse Child Sex Ratios Challenges for Development
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Transcript of Adverse Child Sex Ratios Challenges for Development
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Adverse Child Sex RatiosChallenges for Development
International Workshop on Feminist Economics in China and
India
Mary E John
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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
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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
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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
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• Uneven regional patterns
• “Prosperity Effect”
• Correlations of high education, lower fertility with skewed child sex ratios
• Two child norm
• Impunity of Medical Establishment
Problems
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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
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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
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Patterns of low CSR
• Diverse patterns
• Sex selection most prevalent and growing
• High female child mortality in pockets
• Cases of infanticide
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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
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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…
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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