Hostname: page-component-65f69f4695-22cgb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-26T15:08:27.181Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What has contributed to improvements in the child sex ratio in select districts of India? A decomposition of the sex ratio at birth and child mortality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2019

Nadia Diamond-Smith ,
Nandita Saikia ,
David Bishai  and
Vladimir Canudas-Romo
Nadia Diamond-Smith*
Affiliation:
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Nandita Saikia
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria
David Bishai
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
Vladimir Canudas-Romo
Affiliation:
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: nadia.diamond-smith@ucsf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite an overall downward trend in child sex ratios in India, some of the most imbalanced districts in 2001 (fewer girls than boys) showed signs of becoming more balanced in 2011. This analysis looked in depth at these districts to better understand the nature of the improvement in the child sex ratio using two rounds of data from the Census of India from 2001 and 2011. Data were used from the 153 districts that showed improvement in their child sex ratio between 2001 and 2011. The improvement was decomposed into: (1) less sex-selective abortion and (2) improved girl compared with boy mortality. Most of the improvement in child sex ratios were shown to be due to reductions in sex-selective abortion, although this still made up the majority of the cause of imbalanced sex ratios in 2011. Child sex ratio improvement has been happening in both rural and urban areas of India, and there is evidence of stagnation in mortality decline for urban girls.

Keywords

Sex ratiosSouth AsiaChild mortality

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 27 - 36
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, S and Ray, D (2012) The age distribution of missing women in India. Economic & Political Weekly 47, 47–48.Google Scholar
Arnold, F, Choe, MK and Roy, TK (1998) Son preference, the family-building process and child mortality in India. Population Studies 52(3), 301–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, F, Kishore, S and Roy, TK (2002) Sex-selective abortions in India. Population and Development Review 28(4), 759–785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhat, PNM (1996) Contours of fertility decline in India: a district level study based on the 1991 census. In Srinivasan, K (ed.) Population Policy and Reproductive Health. Hindustan Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, pp. 96–179.Google Scholar
Bhat, PNM, Preston, S and Dyson, T (1984) Vital Rates in India, 1961–1981. National Academy Press. Washington, DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhat, PNM and Zavier, F (2007) Factors influencing the use of prenatal techniques and the sex ratio at birth in India. Economic & Political Weekly 42(42), 2292–2303.Google Scholar
Bongaarts, J and Guilmoto, CZ (2015) How many more missing women? Excess female mortality and prenatal sex selection, 1970–2050. Population and Development Review 41(2), D241–D269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Das Gupta, M and Bhat, PNM (1997) Fertility decline and increased manifestation of sex bias in India. Population Studies 51(3), 307–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond-Smith, N and Bishai, D (2015) Evidence of self-correction of child sex ratios in India: a district-level analysis of child sex ratios from 1981 to 2011. Demography 52(2), 641–666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guilmoto, C (2009) The sex ratio transition in Asia. Population and Development Review 35(3), 519–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilmoto, C and Rajan, SI (2002) District level estimates of fertility from India’s 2001 Census. Economic & Political Weekly 37(7), 665–672.Google Scholar
Hill, K and Upchurch, DM (1995) Gender differences in child health: evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys. Population and Development Review 21(1), 127–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jayaraj, D (2009) Exploring the importance of excess female mortality and discrimination in “natality” in explaining the “lowness” of the sex ratio in India. Developing Economies 46(2), 177–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitagawa, EM (1955) Components of a difference between two rates. Journal of the American Statistical Association 50, 1168–1194.Google Scholar
Kumar, S and Sathyanarayana, KM (2012) District-level estimates of fertility and implied sex ratio at birth in India. Economic & Political Weekly XLVII(33), 66–72.Google Scholar
Mishra, V, Roy, TKR and Retherford, RD (2004) Sex differentials in childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status in India. Population and Development Review 30(2), 269–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of the Registrar General (2011) 2011 Indian Census. Office of the Registrar General, India. URL: http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-Common/CensusData2011.htmlGoogle Scholar
Office of the Registrar General (2013) Sample Registration System. Office of the Registrar General, India.Google Scholar
Oomman, N and Ganatra, BR (2002) Sex selection: the systematic elimination of girls. Reproductive Health Matters 10(19), 184–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preston, S, Heuveline, P and Guillot, M (2001) Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ram, U, Jha, P, Kumar, K, Awasthi, S, Shet, A, Pader, J, et al. (2013) Neonatal, 1–59 month, and under-5 mortalitity in 597 Indian districts, 2001 to 2012: estimates from national demographic and mortality surveys. Lancet Global Health 1(4), e219–e226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Registrar General of India (2001) Census of India 2001. Registrar General of India, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Registrar General of India (2008) District Level Estimates of Child Mortality in India Based on the 2001 Census Data. Registrar General of India, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Registrar General of India (2011) Census of India 2011. Registrar General of India, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Retherford, RD and Mishra, V (2001) An evaluation of recent estimates of fertility trends in India. National Family Health Survey Subject Reports. International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.Google Scholar
Saikia, N, Jasilionis, D, Ram, F and Shkolnikov, VM (2009) Trends in geographical mortality differentials in India. MPDIR Working Paper. Max Planck Institute for Demography.Google Scholar
Saikia, N, Singh, A and Ram, F (2010) Has child mortality in India really increased in the last two decades? Economic & Political Weekly 45(51), 62–70.Google Scholar
Sekher, TV (2010) Special Financial Incentive Schemes for the Girl Child in India: A Review of Select Schemes. International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. URL: https://www.unfpa.org/resources/special-financial-incentive-schemes-girl-child-indiaGoogle Scholar
Sekher, TV (2012) Skewed sex ratios, conditional cash transfers and promotion of girl children: the Indian experience. Population Association of America. San Francisco, CA USA. URL: http://iipsindia.org/pdf/IipsReportCTGirlsinIndia.pdfGoogle Scholar
Sen, A (1992) Missing women. British Medical Journal 304, 587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wells, JCK (2000) Natural selection and sex differences in morbidity and mortality in early life. Journal of Theoretical Biology 202, 65–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed