WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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T.V. SEKHER - N. HATTI
need to focus attention on increasing daughter-discrimination and
aspects related to children differentiated by their gendered value.
Human population exhibits definitive characteristics in terms of
its sex composition. In most parts of the globe fewer females are born
than boys; yet females typically survive longer than males and tend
often to predominate in the population. However, this demographic
attribute eludes India where males decisively out-number females and
where women constitute less than half of the total population. Sex
ratio is a direct indicator of women’s status and welfare. The sex ratio
changes are usually analyzed in a framework that underlies (relatively)
greater deprivation and discrimination of females as opposed to males.
The major determinants of numerical imbalances revolve around
factors such as under enumeration of women, fertility, mortality and
migration. Closely linked to the lower status of women, relative female
under-enumeration may also be a cause for the sex composition from
census data to appear more masculine. The census data should be
interpreted with caution because improving the quality of age data on
children can produce a spurious trend of falling sex ratios at certain
childhood ages (Bhat, 2002).Though such enumeration bias is relatively
greater at certain ages, it does not depict the grim reality and warrants
interventions that can generate better awareness about the need for
accurate age reporting as well as recording.
While the 2001 Indian census shows that the overall sex ratio has
marginally improved from 108 men per 100 women to 107 during the
last decade, the number of boys to girls in the youngest age group
increased from 106 to 108 per 100. The regional disparities also appear
to have increased: the northern states generally exhibit a worsening
trend in sex ratio as compared to the southern states. The Census
evidence suggests a clear cultural preference for male children,
particularly in some North Indian states. The sharpest rise for the age
group 0-6 years is observed in the northern states, particularly in
Punjab (126) and in Haryana (122). The census lists ‘sex-selective
female abortions’, ‘female infanticide’, and ‘female neglect’–typically
through giving girls less food and medical care than boys - as
“important reasons commonly put forward” for this shocking anomaly.
The new figures point out the use of new technologies to determine
gender composition. Furthermore, as social norms are changing
towards smaller families, the availability of and access to new
technologies provide an easy way for parents to achieve such goals.
Amartya Sen has called it a ‘technological revolution of a reactionary
kind’ (Sen, 1990).