India’s overall sex ratio improves. For every 1,000 men, there are 1,020 women. However,this fact concern too because the sex ratio at the birth continues to be lower in the country and it is not water is naturally expected. concern, too, since the sex ratio at birth continues to be lower than what is naturally expected. The fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS), states that the sex ratio is better in rural areas as compared to urban areas. NFHS 2019-2021 states that in the last five years i.e. 2015-16, the sex ratio was just 991. Well, in 13 states and union territories, there are still more males than females.
Another analysis of rural versus urban places states that the sex ratio in rural areas of 14 states, while 22 states had a sex ratio having more males in urban places. “It has been observed that in backward states and districts, the female-male ratio is better as medical facilities are yet to become easily available,” says Amitabh Kundu, research advisor, Oxfam. He then added, “In districts where these are available, sex determination goes up and sex ratio declines.” The union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu had sex ratio: 775 women per 1,000 men which shows the worsen case.
Delhi had the worst rural sex ratio (859) among all states and Kundu points to a catch-22 situation. It brings down the count of girls. “This is the case in most of the northern states. Urban sex ratio for children is lower than rural for the same reason. Overall urban sex ratio is low also because of male selective migration from rural to urban areas,” he said. So, does a decline in sex ratio at make sevrything worse? “Not necessarily,” says Suresh Sharma, head of population research centre at Institute of Economic Growth.
He says, “Sex ratio at birth and overall sex ratio differ by virtue of migration streams. It cannot be directly drawn from a declining sex ratio at birth that the overall sex ratio will also remain skewed moving forward.” India now has more women than men and in states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and Ladakh there is a decline in sex ratios compared to 2015-16. Lakshadweep has improved with 1,187 from 1,022 And Delhi increased 59 in favour of women.
The sex ratio at birth for the country was still 929 females per males. The count is still lower than the natural standard of 952 female births per 1,000 male births and Twenty-nine states had a lower sex ratio at birth than the natural standard. It is in urban areas as compared to 21 states that had not so good natural standards in rural places.
