In an alarming trend, girl child numbers in India have shown a sharper decline than the male children in the decade beginning 2001, leading to a skewed child sex ratio.
On the eve of the International Day of the Girl Child, government on Tuesday said that while the decade saw an overall drop in share of children to total population, nearly three million girls, one million more than boys, are “missing” in 2011 compared to 2001 and there are now 48 fewer girls per 1,000 boys than there were in 1981.
“During 2001- 2011, the share of children to total population has declined and the decline was sharper for female children than male children in the age group 0—6 years,” said the study “Children in India 2012- A Statistical Appraisal” conducted by the Central Statistical Organisation.
“Though, the overall sex ratio of the country is showing a trend of improvement, the child sex ratio is showing a declining trend, which is a matter of concern,” the study said
According to the report, female child population in the age group of 0-6 years was 78.83 million in 2001 which declined to 75.84 million in 2011.
The population of girl child was 15.88 per cent of the total female population of 496.5 million in 2001, which declined to 12.9 per cent of total number of 586.47 million women in 2011.
Similarly the male children population has also declined from 85.01 million in 2001 to 82.95 per cent in 2011. During the period, 1991-2011, the child sex ratio declined from 945 to 914, whereas the overall sex ratio showed an improvement from 927 to 940.
“Though the child sex ratio in rural India is 919 which is 17 points higher than that of urban India, the decline in Child Sex Ratio (0—6 years) during 2001—2011 in rural areas is more than three times as compared to the drop in urban India which is a matter of grave concern,” it added.
Keywords: female infanticide, missing girls, child sex ratio, International Day of the Girl Child, sex ratio, female foeticide
We need to wake up and look at ourselves what is going wrong with all
the programmes aimed at curbing infanticide. Illiteracy and poverty
should be the single largest contributors for this and need to be
eliminated. But I strongly disagree with a poster who says girl child
birth should be incentivised, which is not practical over long-term.
(Also, I feel the title is misleading because the article says there
are three million less female children but all of that not necessarily
due to female infanticide, since there was a general decline in the
number of births in the decade.)
Maybe it is time to start incentivising the birth of a girl child... we should look at
tax benefits/cash transfers/jobs/free or cheap higher education for girls. We are a
compassionless society and the killing of all these girls just worsens the situation.
This is an absolute emergency... actually it is beyond emergency it is a crisis. As a
society we have failed for all women.
A timely significant article.The state like Kerala,where the girl child issues have been less comparing to other states in India, is already bearing the brunt of shortage of young women ,especially when it for brides. The scenario of females outnumbering males has become a tale of the past signalling some unhealthy propositions in the days ahead.The less number of females in the society may lead to several unhealthy practices and i believe that is what is happening in kerala right now.The staggering number of women involved issues and the frantic search for brides and extramarital relations and so on.Of course these are the after effects of the fall in male female ratio. It is sad to see, in spite of all the efforts by governmental and non governmental organisations to stop terminating girl babies, it prevails with full vigour. Blame it for greed and lack of awareness. There should be educational campaigns to curb all the ill-treatment meted out the girl babies.
Please Email the Editor