India Census Reflects a Grim Reality for Girls - India Real Time - WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/03/31/india-census-reflects-a-...

MARCH 31, 2011, 6:06 PM IST

India’s early numbers for census 2011 released Thursday put the
attention back on the India’s increasing population numbers and put
a black mark on India’s growth story—the continued preference for
sons over daughters.

The census has shown an improvement in the overall sex ratio to

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The census 2011 figure records the child sex ratio as
the lowest since the country’s independence.
since the country’s independence in 1947.
940 females per 1,000 men from 933 women for every 1,000 men
in the 2001 census. Individual states have also shown and
improvement in ratios—except for the three states of Bihar, Gujarat
and Jammu and Kashmir. But among children, the gap is widening.
Among children up to the age of six, the number of girls to 1,000
boys shrank to 914 girls to every 1000 boys, a drop from 927 in
2001. The census figure also records this statistic as the lowest

Amid these dismal numbers there is a tiny cause for cheer. The states that had the worst sex ratios in the last census
—Punjab and Haryana—and which have been the focus of the anti-female-feticide work of social work groups, showed
somewhat improved sex ratios, although they were still very low.

Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar federal territory also did not post a
worsening of the child sex ratio. But most others states and union territories of India have shown a decline in the child
sex ratio since the 2001 census.

And although Haryana did register an increase its child sex ratio from 819 from 2001 to 830 in 2011, the number is the
lowest in the country. The best state, overall, was northeastern Mizoram, with a figure of 971.

In Haryana, the Jhajjar district, reports the lowest figures among the districts with a child sex ratio of 774 females per
1000 males. The best district, with a number of 1,013 girls for 1,000 boys, was in the Himalayan state of Himachal
Pradesh.

The figures for the child sex ratio for the capital and its vicinity are not encouraging either, with the child sex ratio
reported at 866 as compared to 868 in the census 2001.

Female feticide, pre-sex selection techniques, attitudes towards the girl child and traditional social practices such as
the heavy gifts demanded from the bride’s family by the groom’s family at the time of a wedding are some of reasons
driving the increasingly skewed sex ratio. While the government has been carrying long standing campaigns against
abortion and sex selection, the ever diminishing numbers of girls show that little has changed. Experts worry about the
repercussions on gender relations and violence when these children, with their skewed ratios, enter adolescence.

They also worry that as families become smaller—urban parents increasingly opt for just one or two children—people
will be even more reluctant to have daughters.

“The issue of discrimination is one that is deep rooted in the Indian society,” said Ravi Verma, director of the Asia office
of the International Center for Research on Women. “With fertility decline, the preference for son is becoming
stronger.”

In India, The Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act of 1994 prohibits “sex selection, before
or after conception” and prevents expectant parents from using pre-natal diagnostic techniques to find out the sex of

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India Census Reflects a Grim Reality for Girls - India Real Time - WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/03/31/india-census-reflects-a-...

their baby.

But there are still many clinics nationwide that illegally disclose this information for a fee. Mr. Verma thinks that it is a
key factor responsible for the declining numbers, particularly in states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana—and that
increased wealth and education haven’t helped.

“The availability of technology is widespread in these states. With the increased economic prosperity in rural class, the
people have resources to access these technologies such as testing and aborting a female fetus,” he said.

Ranjana Kumari head of the New Delhi-based Center for Social Research told India Real Time that their institute had
been warning the government of continued misuse of these technologies and the need to amend the regulation.

“We had been warning the government for the past three years to constitute a board to review the [act] and review
implementation of the act, but our warnings were ignored,” she said, noting that all ultrasound machines are meant to
be registered with the government, but few do it.

An added problem, she says, is that the ultrasound machines used in the tests are portable making them easy to
transport from village to village for sex determination.

“It is no more an urban phenomenon and has seeped into the rural areas also,” she said.

Mr. Verma said that focusing only on those providing the service wasn’t enough—India has to do a lot more to improve
the way the country feels about women, he noted.

“The problem is with the inherent attitudes towards sons and daughters in India. It is not to do with the literacy levels
since the phenomenon is also there in middle-class families,” he said. “It has to do with the fundamental value of
women in households; the respect that is given to them in household and society. Literacy doesn’t change power
dynamics or inherent attitudes and norms.”

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