Census 2011 - the bad news
Census 2011 finds that for every 1000 males, there are only 940 females in India. India compares unfavorably in the sex ratio even with its neighbors – Bangladesh (978), Pakistan (943) and Sri Lanka (1034). China with 926 women for every 1000 men is the major exception being worse off than India.
This is however not the worst of the news in the census. The child sex ratio – the number of females to every 1000 males in the age group 0-6 years - at 914, is sharply lower than the sex ratio in the overall population. What is most shocking is that the child sex ratio continues to follow the decreasing trend established over four decades ago.
At normal biological levels, the sex ratio at birth should be close to 952 and this is seen to be the case even in many Asian countries - Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka for instance. The normal child sex ratio should be equal to or higher than the sex ratio at birth. The extent to which the child sex ratio in India falls below the figure of 952 represents the numbers of the ‘missing’ girl children.
In Haryana, male children exceeded female children by over 22% in 2001 (this has decreased marginally to 20% in 2011); and in certain districts like Kurukshetra and Ambala, it was closer to 30%. Read the complete India Together piece here.
An excellent discussions of the problem may be found in this reference: ‘The Sex Transition Ratio inAsia ’, Christophe Z. Guilmoto - available online here
Census 2011 finds that for every 1000 males, there are only 940 females in India. India compares unfavorably in the sex ratio even with its neighbors – Bangladesh (978), Pakistan (943) and Sri Lanka (1034). China with 926 women for every 1000 men is the major exception being worse off than India.
This is however not the worst of the news in the census. The child sex ratio – the number of females to every 1000 males in the age group 0-6 years - at 914, is sharply lower than the sex ratio in the overall population. What is most shocking is that the child sex ratio continues to follow the decreasing trend established over four decades ago.
At normal biological levels, the sex ratio at birth should be close to 952 and this is seen to be the case even in many Asian countries - Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka for instance. The normal child sex ratio should be equal to or higher than the sex ratio at birth. The extent to which the child sex ratio in India falls below the figure of 952 represents the numbers of the ‘missing’ girl children.
The worst offenders
The tribal belt states, and the eastern, north-eastern and southern states have far better sex ratios than the states of the north, west & central India Punjab and the National Capital Region.
Region | States | Child Sex Ratio |
North-East | Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, | 934-971 |
South | Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka | 943-959 |
Tribal Belt & East | Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, | 933-964 |
North & Central | 830-866 | |
Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh | 899-912 | |
West | Rajasthan, | 883-886 |
An excellent discussions of the problem may be found in this reference: ‘The Sex Transition Ratio in
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