India’s sex ratio has always been a bit tilted to the male side as the country has seen practices like female infanticide and foeticide prevalent even decades after independence. To enforce equality and maintain the balance between the two halves of the population governments have brought out legislation and schemes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. With collective efforts of all, in a first, India has achieved a milestone in its gender ratio aspect with more women than men.
Now said to be at level with developed countries, now India has 1020 women per 1000 men, from the previous figure of 991. But, the data released by the 5th National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has also stated a worrying cause – the sex ratio at birth continues to be below the normally expected figures, with 929 females per 1000 males. Conducted between 2019 and 2021, it surveyed about 650,000 households to conclude that the ratio is better in rural areas than in urban settlements. Though the actual sex ratio can be known only after the scheduled census of 2021, the numbers are reflective of the recent shifts and changes in society.
In an interesting find, the report held that in places where medical facilities were scarce, the ratio was higher for females, while those with access to such facilities saw a drop in the ratio due to the prevalence of sex-selective abortions. Over 13 states and UTs still have more men than women while the numbers are higher in rural areas for 14 states and more in urban areas for 22. The worst urban ratio was held by Dadra and Nagar Haveli with 775 women per 1000 men while Delhi’s figures of 829 women per 1000 men were counted to be the worst rural ratio.
The reason for the lower urban ratio than rural in the northern states of the country was attributed to migration from villages to metropolitans which is generally centered around men. Among the states and UT like Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – rather had a decline in the ratio with respect to an earlier survey of 2015-16 while, Lakshadweep saw the ratio increase to 1,187 from 1,022.
