Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

172 DEEPAK K. MISHRA AND VANDANA UPADHYAY
belonging to different tribes and sub-tribes of the state, and the paucity
of in-depth studies on various aspects of gender relations, it is very difficult
to arrive at valid conclusions on the basis of the few variables for which
reliable estimates are available. Second, in the absence of earlier benchmarks,
it is difficult to understand the magnitude and the processes of
change. 2 However, we have attempted to discuss a few indicators of women’s
well-being and empowerment to point out that irrespective of the initial
conditions of women in the traditional society, the development process
has created conditions under which women have not only been able to
participate and utilise the emerging opportunities, but also face new hurdles
in various spheres of the rapidly changing socio-economic milieu.
The intention is not to deny the significant progress made by women in
various fields, but to recognise the significant gaps that remain to be
bridged. The following analysis, based largely on the available secondary
data, is far from exhaustive, but is intended to provide a preliminary insight
into the complexities of the transition process in terms of its relationship
with gender relations in the state.
We start with a discussion on the sex ratio. A lower sex ratio typically
represents a lower social status of women, which creates conditions for
discrimination at various levels. Dreze and Sen (1995) feel that it also
captures the extent of intra-household gender inequalities. Although the
sharp decline in the sex ratio in India has been a cause for concern, at a
disaggregated level there are significant regional variations. Regions with
a higher percentage of Scheduled Tribe (ST) populations are typically
found to have a higher sex ratio, reflecting a lesser degree of gender discrimination
(Rustagi 2000). The sex ratio, which declined from 862 to 859
between 1981 and 1991, increased to 893 in 2001. The sex ratio, however,
cannot be taken as a reliable measure of women’s well-being because of
the discrepancies arising out of in-migration. In order to isolate the effects
of migration, if we separately consider the sex ratio among the ST population,
which largely consists of the indigenous population, a steady decline
is noticed from 1,013 in 1961 to 998 in 1991, although it has increased to
1,003 in 2001 (Table 8.4). While sex-selective migration may have contributed
to the overall low sex ratio in the state, the child sex ratio (CSR),
which is less likely to be affected by migration has also registered a sharp
decline from 982 to 964 between 1991 and 2001. This decline has been
sharper in rural areas than in the urban areas. Notably, the CSR in