| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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A more specific and dynamic indicator is the sex ratio of young children in India, where the trend in missing females appears to be worsening. Indeed, former Health Minister Sushma Swaraj expressed concern that India is at risk of becoming “a daughterless nation” (Carmichael, 2004).
Provisional data from the 2001 census of India show an increase in the ratio of the number of male to female children since the 1991 census. The ratio of the child population aged 0 to 6 years in 2001 was 107.8 males per 100 females,1 an increase from the 1991 census ratio of 105.8, representing a deficit of nearly 6 million young girls. This continues the trend observed nationwide from 1961 onward, with a particularly sharp incline evident since 1981, as shown in Figure 1.1 (DasGupta & Bhat, 1997; Registrar General of India, 2001). Although the sharpest declines in the relative number of girls were observed in the more affluent Northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh as well as in the Western/Central state of Gujarat, decreases were observed nationwide, with 77% of all districts recording higher male-to-female (M:F) child population ratios in 2001 than in 1991 (Registrar General of India, 2001). Appendix Maps A.1.1 and A.1.2 display the 2001 juvenile sex ratio by district for the rural and urban populations.
This reduction in the relative number of female children could be due to a combination of factors: changes in the sex ratio at birth due to the diffusion of sex-selective abortion, an increase in the mortality of female children relative to male children, as well as to data errors such as changes in the census undercount of girls relative to boys (Dyson, 2001).