Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Effectiveness of Laws in Curbing the Menace of Female Foeticide


Chapter-5

Effectiveness of Laws in Curbing the
Menace of Female Foeticide

5.1. Sex Ratio

Sex ratio is an important social indicator to measure the extent of prevailing equity between males and females in a society at a given point of time. India’s sex ratio of 940 is lowest among the most populous countries in the world namely Pakistan (943), Bangladesh (978), Indonesia (988), Nigeria (987), Japan (1055), Brazil (1042), USA (1025) and Russia (1167). Of these 9 countries, 4 have a sex ratio above unity, meaning a population of 1000 females per 1000 males.[1]

The effectiveness of the laws can be judged by the impact they have on the ground. One of the most disquieting trends that has surfaced from the reading of census figures is the sharp decline in sex ratio of child population down to 976 girls for every 1000 boys in 1961 census to 927 girls in the 2001 census (Table 1). High incidence of induced abortions and sharp decline in child sex ratio in the last decade proves the practice of female foeticide.


Table 1 : Sex ratio female per 1000 males in India 1901-2001[2]

Year
Sex Ratio
Sex Ratio in Children (0-6 years)
1901
972
--
1911
964
--
1921
955
--
1931
950
--
1941
945
--
1951
946
--
1961
951
976
1971
930
964
1981
934
962
1991
929
945
2001
933
927
2011*
940
914



Graph prepared on the basis of the data in Table-1

Table 2 : Comparative Child Sex Ratios by Sate & Region over the Intercensal Period 1991-2001[3]

Year
2001
1991
Region
Total
Rural
Urban
Total
Rural
Urban
India
927
934
906
945
948
935
Jammu & Kashmir
941
957
873
--
--
--
Himachal Pradesh
896
900
844
951
955
904
Punjab
798
799
796
875
878
866
Chandigarh
845
847
845
899
910
897
Uttarakhand
908
918
872
949
952
936
Haryana
819
823
808
879
877
884
Delhi
868
850
870
915
900
917
Rajasthan
909
914
887
916
919
909
Uttar Pradesh
916
921
890
927
926
928
Bihar
942
944
924
953
953
950
Sikkim
963
966
922
965
965
936
Arunachal Pradesh
965
960
980
982
986
946
Nagaland
964
969
939
993
1001
959
Manipur
957
956
961
974
975
972
Mizoram
964
965
963
969
973
965
Tripura
966
968
948
967
968
959
Meghalaya
973
973
969
986
989
968
Assam
965
973
943
975
977
955
West Bengal
960
963
948
967
969
955
Jharkhand
965
973
930
979
985
950
Orissa
953
955
933
967
969
949
Chhattisgarh
975
982
938
984
988
960
Madhya Pradesh
932
939
907
941
944
931
Gujarat
883
906
837
928
936
909
Daman & Diu
926
916
943
958
933
996
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
979
1003
888
1013
1015
977
Maharashtra
913
916
908
946
953
934
Andhra Pradesh
961
963
955
975
979
962
Karnataka
946
949
940
960
963
951
Goa
938
952
924
964
972
953
Lakshadweep
959
999
900
941
951
932
Kerala
960
961
958
958
958
958
Tamil Nadu
942
933
955
948
945
955
Pondicherry
967
967
967
963
963
962
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
957
966
936
973
973
970


Table 3 : Child Sex Ratio by Area and Census Year

Census
Total
Rural
Urban
1981
962
963
931
1991
945
948
935
2001
927
934
906
2011
940
947
926



Graph prepared on the basis of the data in Table-3

The Results of the first population census (Table 2 and 3) of the millennium reveals a number of significant changes in the sex ratio patterns in the country[4] :

(i)                the sex ratio decline among children in the 0-6 age groups turns out to be sharper in the urban area than in the rural.

(ii)             the traditional north-south divide stands significantly modified as the sex ratio is rapidly taking the urban route.

The sharp decline in the urban female / male ratios among children cannot be explained away by any of the three popular escape hatches of yesterdays, i.e. migration, under count or biologically ordained high sex ratio at birth. This decline clearly points to one factor-sex selective abortion or female foeticde that has gained currency during the 1980s and more sharply in 1990s.

Table 4 : Comparative Child Sex Ratio Distributions

Ranges
1991
2001
Les than 800
--
14
800-849
1
31
850-899
68
71
900-949
182
212
950-999
307
246
1000+
21
5
Total (ex-J&K)
579
579



Graph prepared on the basis of the data in Table-4
Table 5 : The Best Districts by Sex Ratio

District
Child Sex Ratio (2001)
East Kameng (Arunachal Pradesh)
1035
Pulwama (Jammu & Kashmir)
1033
Kupwara (Jammu & Kashmir)
1021
Dantewada (Chhatisgarh)
1014
Upper Siang (Arunachal Pradesh)
1010
Bastar (Chhattisgarh)
1009
Lower Sabansiri (Arunachal Pradesh)
1005
Bagdam (Jammu & Kashmir)
1002
Nabarangpur (Orissa)
999
North (Sikkim)
995


Table 6 : Bottom Ten Districts in India by Child Sex Ratio

District
Child Sex Ratio (2001)
Fatehgarh Sahib (Punjab)
766
Kurushetra (Haryana)
771
Patiala (Punjab)
777
Ambala (Haryana)
782
Mansa (Punjab)
782
Kapurthala (Punjab)
785
Bhatinda (Punjab)
785
Sangrur (Punjab)
786
Sonipat (Haryana)
788
Gurdaspur (Punjab)
789

Table Nos. 5 & 6 show that the best districts are situated in remote corners of India (3 districts in Kashmir), inaccessible tribal belts (northeast and Chattisgarh). Apart from the lack of modern technology for sex selection, the other factor in these inaccessible area is that boy child mortality may be greater because of the biological advantages girls have in coping with extreme stress. Expectedly, the worst districts are all in the Punjab and Haryana, the cradle of private sex determination clinics.[5]

Table 7 : Comparative statistics to show the decline in the child sex ratio over the last decade in different districts of different states[6]

State
District
1991
2001
% decline in sex ratio
Punjab
Mansa
873
779
9.4%
Sangrur
873
784
8.9%
Fatehgarh Sahib
874
754
12%
Jalandhar
886
797
8.9%
Bathinda
860
779
8.1%
Kapurthala
879
775
10.4%
Patiala
871
770
10.1%
Amritsar
861
783
7.8%
Rupnagar
884
791
9.3%
Haryana
Ambala
888
784
10.4%
Kurukshetra
868
770
9.8%
Kaithal
854
789
6.5%
Sonipat
878
783
9.5%
Rohtak
868
796
7.2%
Fatehabad
873
830
4.3%
Sirsa
883
818
6.5%
Hisar
864
830
3.4%
Jind
858
818
4%
Panipat
889
807
8.2%
Bhiwani
885
838
4.7%
Jhajjar
886
805
8.1%
Gurgaon
895
863
3.2%
Faridabad
884
856
2.8%
Rewari
894
814
8%
Mahendragarh
892
814
7.8%
Karnal
871
808
6.3%
Yamunagar
888
807
8.1%
Panchkula
890
837
5.3%
Gujarat
Mehsana
899
798
10.1%
Patan
903
862
4.1%
Sabar Kautha
933
876
5.7%
Gandhinagar
888
816
7.2%
Kheda
900
880
2%
Vadodara
934
873
6.1%
Bhavnagar
925
886
3.9%
Amreli
923
894
2.9%
Junagadh
934
898
3.6%
Porbandar
909
897
1.2%
Jamnagar
916
894
2.2%
Rajkot
914
844
7%
Surendranagar
905
861
4.4%
Ahemdabad
896
814
8.2%
Anand
896
873
2.3%
Delhi
South West
904
845
5.9%
Central Delhi
913
902
3.5%
North West
913
854
5.9%
West
913
858
5.5%
North
920
870
5%
New Delhi
919
882
3.7%
North East
917
867
5.1%
East
918
868
5.1%
South
912
886
2.6%
Rajasthan
Shri Ganganagar
894
852
4.2%
Hanumangarh
897
873
2.4%
Jhunjhunu
900
867
3.3%
Sikar
904
882
2.2%
Jaipur
925
897
2.8%
Alwar
914
888
2.6%
Bharatpur
879
875
0.4%
Dhaulpur
875
859
1.6%
Maharashtra
Jalgaon
925
8687
5.8%
Aurangabad
933
884
4.9%
Ahmednagar
949
890
5.9%
Bid
939
898
4.1%
Mumbai
942
898
4.4%
Sholapur
935
897
3.8%
Kohlapur
941
884
5.7%
Tamil Nadu
Dharmapuri
931
859
7.2%
Salem
905
878
2.7%
Theni
830
826
0.4%
H.P.
Kangra
896
893
0.3%
Hamirpur
939
836
10.3%
Una
938
864
7.4%
Bilaspur
923
884
3.9%


Table 8 : Distribution of districts by ranges of child sex ratio in age group
(0-6). India : 1991 & 2001[7]

Sex ratio
(0-6)
(1991)
(2001)
No. of districts
Population (million)
Per cent
No. of districts
Population (million)
Per cent
1,000-1,049
21
8,67
1.04
8
3,87
0.38
950-999
306
454.01
54.27
242
403.83
39.38
900-949
181
287.91
34.41
208
381.36
37.59
850-899
68
83.49
9.98
71
155.66
15.34
800-849
1
2.57
0.31
3.2
47.85
4.72
Less Than 800
--
--
--
16
22.08
2.10
Total
577
836.65
100.00
577
1041.65
100


Table No. 7 & 8 show that decline in child sex ratio is all pervasive and has occurred throughout India. While it is more pronounced in Punjab, Haryana, parts of HP and Guajrat, cities like Chandigarh, Delhi, Surat, Mumbai and Kolkata have also witnessed a similar trend.

A Study by the UNFPA revealed that Punjab and Haryana experienced a rapid decline in fertility owing to sex selective abortions. The number of sex selective abortions in Haryana are 69,000 and in Punjab 57,000 over the period of 1995 to 2001.

A study was conducted in the states of Haryana and Tamil Nadu by Sayled Unisa, C.P. Lrakasam, R.K. Sinha and R.B. Bhagat to collect evidence of sex selective abortions in two different cultural settings in India.[8] A total of 2,590 households in Jind and 1,791 households in Salem were covered. The total number of ever-married women in reproductive ages who were interviewed in the selected villages was 2,646 in Jind and 1,706 in Salem district. Detailed information was collected on household characteristics, pregnancy history, antenatal care, deliveries, abortion history, reasons for abortion and obstetric morbidity for each pregnancy starting from marriage.

Following are tabled statistics from the above mentioned study :
Table 9 : Abortion Ratios[9]

Year
Haryana (Jind)
Tamil Nadu (Salem)
Live Birth
Abortions
Rate
Live Birth
Abortions
Rate
1971-1984
1482
70
4.72
1501
148
9.80
1985-1994
3419
172
5.03
1296
178
13.70
1995-2001
2103
188
8.93
982
132
13.44
Total*
7106
486
6.84
3818
496
12.70

*Abortion Ratio : (No. of abortions/live births)*100

*Total includes all those women who had not indicated the year of abortion.


Table 10 : Places where induced abortions took place among ever married women, Salem, Tamil Nadu[10]

Order of Pregnancy
Private Clinic %
Government Clinic %
Others %
Total No.
1
50
13.3
36.6
30
2
71.4
20.6
7.9
63
3
79.0
16.2
4.6
43
4
76.9
23.0
--
39
5
85.1
14.8
--
27
6+
80.9
19.0
--
21
Total
73.5
18.3
8.0
223




[2]     Indu Grewal & J. Kishore, ‘Female Foeticide in India’, International Humanist News, May 2, 2004.
*Provision Data 2011 Census
[3] http://pndt.gov.in/writereaddata/mainlinkfile/file38.pdf
[4]     http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/india/Rural_Urban_2011.pdf
[5]     Sabu George, “Sex Selection as Genocide”, Undoing our Future – A Report on Status of Young Child in India, 1st Edn., Published by Bibliophile South Asia, Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi, 2009.
[6] http://pndt.gov.in/writereaddata/mainlinkfile/file38.pdf
[7] http://pndt.gov.in/writereaddata/mainlinkfile/file38.pdf
[8]     http://www.iipsindia.org/pub/res/ssa/chep8.pdf.
[9] http://www.iipsindia.org/publications05_b_16.htm
[10] ibid

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