WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

SEX RATIO AT BIRTH AND EXCESS FEMALE CHILD MORTALITY IN INDIA…
states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, and West Bengal
where prenatal diagnostic tests are used in less than 10 percent of the
pregnancies. Secondly, in the South Indian states, the sex ratio at last
birth is high and at the same time the use of sonogram/ultrasound or
amniocentesis is also the highest (45 percent and 36 percent of the
pregnancies in Kerala, Tamil Nadu). Yet, the sex ratio of births for
which these technologies were performed, is lower in these states,
except in Karnataka, suggesting that prenatal diagnostic tests have not
been misused for sex-selective abortion, unlike the more widely prevalent
pattern in the above-mentioned states. If couples have a strong
desire for sons, the simplest stopping rule is that they will continue to
have children until they reach their desired number of sons (Clark,
2000; McClelland, 1979). With low fertility (1-2 children) and strong
preference for sons (at least one son) as an intertwined norm, when
sons are born first, couples will stop having children by adopting
contraception. Alternatively, when daughters are born first, couples
will continue to have children until they have a son. Both strategies of
couples led to a corresponding rise in the proportion of sons, even in
the absence of sex-selective abortion.
4.2. Regional pattern of the dynamics of excess female child mortality
In the past, the sex differentials in child mortality, particularly in
the northern states of India, were amongst the highest ever recorded in
demographic history and the resultant excess female child mortality
was a major contributor to the historically high sex ratio in India. In
the context of emerging evidence of widespread sex-selective abortion
as a major contributor to the increase in child sex ratio in the recent
decades, it is all the more important to assess the contribution of
excess female child mortality to high or increasing sex ratios. Since the
1970s, India’s Sample Registration System provides long-term evidence
on the extent of sex differentials in child mortality. The SRS data
indicate that the extent of sex differentials in child mortality has worsened
during the 1980s and 1990s compared with the 1970s (Registrar
General, 1991, 2003). In the absence of any biological basis, the cause
of excess female child mortality is attributed to son preference, patriarchal
structure and the consequent inferior position of women in society.
In India and in developing countries in general, excess female child
mortality tends to occur significantly and mostly over the ages 1-4 (see
also Tabutin and Williems, 1998). Male disadvantage in neonatal mortality
turns into female disadvantage of child mortality. Excess female
child mortality tends to be small and insignificant during infancy (after
accounting for biological male disadvantage) and also from age five.
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