Scholars disagree on the extent to which such dire consequences will materialise
In the past, some of India’s major religious groups varied widely in their sex ratios at birth, but today there are indications these differences are shrinking. Sikhs, who in past decades had a particularly large imbalance of baby boys to girls, now seem to be gradually moving towards the natural level, as well as converging with other groups.
In the 2001 Census, Sikhs had a sex ratio at birth of 130 boys per 100 girls, far exceeding that year’s national average of 110.
By the 2011 Census, the Sikh sex ratio at birth had narrowed to 121 boys per 100 girls. It now hovers near 110, about the same as the ratio of boys to girls at birth among the country’s Hindu majority (109), according to the latest National Family Health Survey.
In recent decades, Christians also have stood out from India’s other religious groups, but in the opposite direction: India’s Christian minority has maintained a sex ratio at birth around the natural level of 105 boys per 100 girls, indicating a relatively low incidence of sex-selective abortion in the Christian community.
Indian Muslims also now have a sex ratio at birth (106 boys per 100 girls) that is close to the natural norm seen in India prior to the introduction of prenatal testing.
Aborting females may have consequences that reverberate beyond the families making the choice. International research shows that societies with high rates of sex-selective abortions typically suffer within a couple of decades from a shortage of marriageable women and a surplus of men seeking brides.
This ‘marriage squeeze’ can trigger a variety of social problems, such as increases in sex-related violence and crimes and trafficking of women.
Even if India’s sex ratio at birth continues to normalise, the large number of girls ‘missing’ from its population could continue to have profound consequences on Indian society for decades to come.
Scholars disagree on the extent to which such dire consequences will materialise.
Prof. Ravinder Kaur at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, for example, notes that India can readily absorb a large share of the shortage of brides through voluntary cross-regional marriages. However, evidence indicates that in some parts of India like Punjab and Haryana, there has been a shortage of brides and that women are being sold into forced marriages or prostitution.
The United Nations in 2016 projected there is a 7 per cent excess of marriageable men in India; it projected the share of extra marriageable males could reach 16 per cent by 2040, well above the 5 per cent norm.
Source: Pew report on India’s sex ratio, 2022
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First Published: Mon, August 29 2022. 00: 24 IST