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In India, the Child Sex Ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0–6 years in a human population.^[1] Thus it is equal to 1000 x the reciprocal of the sex ratio (ratio of males to females in a population) in the same age group, i.e. under age seven. An imbalance in this age group will extend to older age groups in future years. Currently, the ratio of males to females is generally significantly greater than 1, i.e. there are more boys than girls.

According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981 to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 108.8 in 2011.^[2] The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana (118 and 120 respectively per 2011 census).^[3] The child sex ratio has been more prominent for males in India for quite a while, since the 1980s with thirty fewer females to males ^[4]

Likelihood of an Imbalanced Child Sex Ratio

Genetically, the odds of having a boy or girl is a 50/50 chance, therefore in a perfect theoretical world the child sex ratio would be split down the middle. There is a fifty percent chance of having a boy or girl due to the genetics. A women would give one of her X chromosomes, whereas the male would either give the Y chromosome or the X chromosome resulting in a baby boy or baby girl. ^[5] Oddly enough the child sex ratio is not a fifty percent male and fifty percent females, in South Asian countries there is a larger percentage of male children than female children. Many counties in South Asia have a uneven child sex ratio. A large city in India, Jhajjar had almost 15,000 more baby boys than baby girls, that is 128 boys per 100 girls. ^[6]

Variables that Change the Child Sex Ratio

War Alters Child Sex Ratio

Unlike India, the number of males born surpassed the number of females born in England after World War I. For every 100 girls born, there were two more boys born in the UK. It was believed the men were producing baby boys to replace the men lost during battle. Others believed it was genetics, if the males had a family of many brothers it was likely for them to produce more sons than daughters. ^[7] Many more boys were born in many countries after the world wars. There are about 105 males to 100 females in the United States and Britain in 2008. ^[5]

Sex-Selective Abortions

In the Asian culture, families want baby boys, because it is traditional that the boys take care of the parents, while the daughters go marry and leave the family. These families want to ensure elderly security, therefor they want more boys in the family. Typically it cost more to have a daughter and they cannot contribute to the family nearly as much as the son can. ^[6] These factors cause family to get an abortion because they want the variables that the boys have to offer, and unfortunately it causes the child male to child female sex ratio it be imbalanced.

Fertility Rates Change

Over the last forty years, India's fertility rate has decreased by more than half. Fertility factor rates are cohort measures that are grouped together by year and are studied within a longer time frame. Over time, this decrease in fertility would have a factor to the child sex ratio because the overall fertility rate has gone down. Fewer women having babies will result in fewer babies and the child sex ratio to alter. ^[8]

Impact of skewed ratio

The impact of a skewed sex ratio with more male children than females is already being felt in some parts of India and China^[9] and is likely to continue to tighten the skewed ratio between genders.:^[1]

• When there are fewer women of marriageable age, a significant proportion of men will have to delay their marriage. This is known as the "marriage squeeze." This is when one group, of marriage eligible men, choose brides from a group of women that is fewer in numbers than the males. When the next group of eligibility enters the group there will be leftover men from the prior group added to current, group. If the woman sex ratio of eligible marriage age is significantly smaller than the men, there will be a resulting decline in fertility. ^[9]

• This will initially affect younger generations of men in their 20s. These men will not only be in surplus within their cohort (age group), but they will also face competition from a backlog of older, unmarried men, who will still be in the marriage market.


• This problem will not be overcome simply by delaying marriage, due to the cumulative impact of the skewed sex ratio over several generations. Thus a proportion of men will in due course have to forgo marriage altogether. The poorest males will be disproportionately affected by this marriage squeeze. This may cause destabilization and may translate into class-based tensions.^[10]


• A larger amount of unmarried men can cause havoc in the country. Relationships and marriage potentially keep these men out of trouble, therefore with the problem of not having enough women for men to marry can cause men to make poor decisions. Typically the men who are not able to marry are those of middle to low socioeconomic classes who do not have as much education, thus leading to closing themselves off to society and acting in violence behaviors. ^[11]

See also

• Sex Ratio


• Lost boys (polygamy)


• Female foeticide in India


• Sexy son hypothesis


• Asian Culture


• Sex Selective Abortions

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: India subsidizes girls' education to offset gender imbalance

• Declining sex ratios in industrialized countries - environmental hazards


• Sex ratio in communities with high Hepatitis B favours boys


• CIA listing of sex ratios for individual countries (including age divisions)


• A review of sex ratio theory


• Gujarat doctors killing Rajasthan’s unborn girls