WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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P. AROKIASAMY
as well as Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. The results confirm that sexselective
abortion has played an important part in the rise in sex ratio at
birth in these states. With low fertility as an inevitable choice, parents
chose the route of sex-selective abortion to swiftly achieve their desired
sex composition rather than the existing option of differential
stopping behaviour that entails women undergoing repeated pregnancies.
The evidence of rising sex ratio at last birth and sex ratio of recent
two births in the last three years, even in the absence of use of prenatal
diagnostic techniques, suggest that parents’ ‘differential stopping behaviour’
(DSB) strategy also contributes to the rise in SRB. In the
South Indian states also, the marginal rise in sex ratio at last birth
appears to be caused by stopping rule behaviour. Prenatal diagnostic
techniques in this region seem to have been used more commonly for
checking the health and growth status of foetuses.
Both NFHS and SRS data indicate persuasive evidence of excess
female child mortality as the long-term determinant of female deficit in
India. As yet, trends indicate no evidence of significant decline in sex
differentials in child mortality, which worsened during 1980s and
1990s, even with the emergent trend of exacerbated prenatal discrimination.
Region-wise regression model estimates of child mortality by
sex illustrate that excess female child mortality compared with boys is
about a third higher for the first girl child and even greater for girls of
higher rank in the North and North Cental regions. In the East, West
and South regions, excess female child mortality is marginal and does
not show a systematic rise for girls of higher rank. Consistent with the
regional pattern of excess female child mortality, the levels of discrimination
against female children in the provision of health care is also the
higher in the North followed by North Central region. By contrast in
the South region, there is no significant evidence of neglect of female
children in health care.
In sum, a comparison between prenatal and postnatal discrimination
suggest a greater demographic impact of prenatal discrimination
on the steeper increase in child sex ratio in the recent decades. Moving
beyond the inter-regional contrasts, an important concern is the relation
between development and prenatal, vis-à-vis postnatal, sex discrimination
of female children and the trade-off link between fertility
decline and gender bias. The impact of women’s education and household
economic condition on gender bias appears to mediate in the
opposite direction with respect to prenatal vis-à-vis postnatal discrimination.
While the impact of son preference on sex ratio at birth and
excess child mortality for girls tends to vary with overall level of fertility.