Despite India being the largest democracy and becoming the fastest-growing economy in the world, its women and girls find them at the tail end of the progress. The World Economic Forum recently released the Global Gender Gap rankings and out of 146 countries, we, the world’s fastest growing nation, stand at the 135th position. When it comes to female healthcare and survival, the scenario is even more deplorable as we disgracefully occupy the 146th position.
With a population of more than a billion, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) between 2019 and 2021 points out that there are more women in India than men — “1,020 women for every 1,000 men.†Despite women constituting a majority of the population, women in India face challenges that largely stem from societal perceptions of gender roles. The impacts of this discrimination and gender inequality are far-reaching and deep-rooted. The indications of preference for males over females can be seen right at the stages of birth and infancy in
the glaring numbers of the sex ratio at birth (929). Considering the case of Odisha, the sex ratio at birth has plummeted to its lowest ever, according to the NFHS-5 that reported 894 female children for every 1,000 males despite the Central and State Governments’ initiatives for the girl child. In the NFHS-4, the sex ratio at birth in Odisha was estimated at 932. Wide variation has been noticed in sex ratio at birth in urban and rural pockets of the State. While the sex ratio at birth in past five years in urban areas is 950, it is estimated at 885 in rural areas.
Looking at the spatial variation, the more developed districts such as
Cuttack (745), Puri (782), Jharsuguda (793), Khordha (810), Sundargarh (809), and Deogarh present more glaring numbers as compared to the historically backward southern belt of Odisha comprising of
Koraput (1,014), Nabarangpur (1,045), Nuapada (1,025) and Sambalpur (1,061) districts. This shows that despite higher levels of education and better exposure to a modernised way of living, the perceived developed and upper class of the society have a shallow ideology which is responsible for their preference of sons over daughters.
Another factor that can explain the observed pattern is the slow penetration of technology and the facilities like pre-natal sex screening in the less developed areas of the State. The absence of the means of sex detection has contributed to people accepting the natural incidences without interference. This is one instance which explains how technology developed by people contributes to a major social dilemma.
On the contrary, overall sex ratio of the state appeared to be healthy. Against a sex ratio of 1,036 found in NFHS-4, there has been perceptible improvement in NFHS-5 and the sex ratio has gone up to 1,063. Ironically, overall sex ratio is healthy in rural area at 1,074 compared to 1,010 in urban areas. The increase in overall sex ratio is a combination of increased life expectancy of women and the marginal increase in sex ratio at birth per 1,000 females in the country.
Low sex ratio at birth in rural sectors points to the fact that the social structure is still very weak. Despite massive awareness campaign launched under National Health Mission, a patriarchal mindset still remains a dominant factor. Unlike girls, who are seen as an economic burden on parents because of the practice of dowry, sons are preferred. Families celebrate the birth of a boy; a girl child’s arrival is reason for mourning. If in earlier decades, people chose to kill new-born girls, the availability of technology to identify the sex of the foetus has resulted in women committing sex selective abortions to prevent a girl from being born. Pre-natal sex screening is banned in the country and yet female feticide continues as reflected in India’s low sex ratio at birth (SRB).
In India, the child sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0–6 years in a human population.
Demographers explain that in a scenario in which the sex differentials in mortality are rapidly diminishing and there is no sign of an increase in the excess female under-5 deaths, the rising trend in CSR can only be explained by high SRB. An imbalance in this age group will extend to older age groups in future years. The reduced demographic share of women in democratic regimes would translate into a weaker political voice in public decision-making, a trend that could be reinforced by women’s lessened involvement in non-domestic activities, such as outside employment and civil life. Studies show that rising sex ratios explain around 10 percent of the significant growth in China’s stock market size in recent decades. However, in case of India not only is the future of sex ratio shaky, the female labour participation rates are below 20%. How can a country be expected to grow into a 5 trillion-dollar economy if half its population is marginalised and does not get an opportunity to contribute to the economic development of the country?
There is an urgent need to reach young people both for reproductive health education and services as well as to cultivate gender equity norms. Increasing female education and economic prosperity will help to improve the ratio. Policies like the Sukanaya Samriddhi Yojna are steps in the right direction. The sharp decline in sex ratio as pointed by Census 2011 data called for urgent action. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme was launched in 2015 in Panipat, Haryana, to address the issue of decline in child sex ratio and related issues of empowerment of girls and women over a life cycle continuum. To support and empower women who are victims of violence, the Government has rolled out schemes like SAWADHAAR GREH and UJJAWALA.
India must implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 more stringently and dedicate more resources to fighting the preference for boys. In this context, the Drugs Technical Advisory Board’s decision to include ultrasound machines in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act is a step in the right direction.
Despite several policies and programmes, lower health outcomes for
women and girl children still persist in India. Certain forms of discrimination, especially the son preference, reinforced by the techno economic forces are eliminating the girl child (even from the womb).Effective implementation of the existing women- and children-related policies, including women's property ownership, are required to empower women, to ensure girl child's survival, and to reduce gender gap in access to healthcare. This could reduce the effect of population momentum and accelerate progress towards reaching a more normal sex-ratio at birth. India’s population future depends on it.
(Dr Swain is Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Mob: 919015146613, and Agrawal is a student of the same department)
