Sex-Selective Abortion in India: The Impact on Child Mortality B ...

The main pathway to excess female mortality is likely to be differential allocation of household resources to male and female children (Arnold, 1992; Basu, 1989; Bourne & Walker, 1991; Chen, Huq, & D’Souza, 1981; Das Gupta, 1987; Hill & Upchurch, 1995; Miller, 1989).

India has had a long-standing imbalance in the population sex ratio favoring males. Indeed, the first census of India administered by the British in 1872 revealed a severe deficit of women (Miller, 1981). The M:F sex ratio has shown an increase of 1% at each subsequent decennial census over the course of the 20th century (Registrar General of India, 1995, as cited in Mayer, 1999).

Recent demographic studies have focused on the long-term effects of historical changes in levels of mortality and changing gender differentials in mortality on the current population sex ratio. Analyzing national-level data, Mayer (1999) concluded that the secular increase in the M:F sex ratio in India is due to gender differentials in the rate of demographic transition. Health and nutritional status of children has improved at a slightly faster pace for males than females resulting over a long time period in increasing secular trends in the sex ratio. The increase is an artifact of long-term improvements in life expectancy leading to population increase, which occurs at a different rate for girls and boys. Griffiths, Matthews, & Hinde (2000) used a simulation approach to show that excess female mortality persisting over the long-term can continue to produce an increase in the male-to-female population sex ratios, even when excess female mortality is in decline. Guillot (2002) cautions against using the overall population sex ratio as a proxy for sex differentials in mortality, and estimates that excess female mortality peaked around 1968, and has been declining since then.