| Chapter 2: | Background on Population Sex Ratio |
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Arnold et al. (2002) found an increase in the sex ratio at birth in the 5 years prior to NFHS-2 (1998–1999) compared to NFHS-1 (1992–1993) from 105.1 to 106.9, and 16 of 26 states had ratios of 107 or higher in the latter period. Similarly, the sex ratio at birth following an induced abortion in the states of Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab was extremely elevated, 158.0, whereas in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu it was 107.9; and among mothers who reported receiving an ultrasound, the sex ratio at birth was 128.7 in Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab and 100.3 in the southern states.
Ganatra, Hirve, and Rao (2001) found in a study of 1,409 rural women in Maharashtra during the period from 1996–1998 that 18% of abortions were obtained for the purpose of sex-selection. Since there are an estimated 4–5 million abortions in India each year, that raises considerably the estimated number of sex-selective abortions per year to 700,000–900,000 compared to the 106,000 estimated by Arnold et al. (2002) and to the 500,000 estimated by Jha et al. (2006). Several hospital-based studies in Punjab have investigated the sex ratio at birth (Booth, Verma, & Beri, 1994; Sachar et al., 1990), showing a high ratio in 1988 of 121.8 and an increase over the 1980s from 107 in 1982 to 132 in 1993. Factors associated with use of fetal sex determination (Booth et al., 1994) included income, education, and sex composition of older siblings. Use increased with increasing monthly income and was common (63%) among those families with no sons and one or more daughters. As the level of the mother’s education increased, so did use of sex determination testing.
Retherford and Roy (2003) used data from NFHS-1 and NFHS-2 to analyze factors related to the sex ratio at birth as an indicator of sex-selective abortion.