The ratio of women to men dropping sharply in India
The ratio of women to men among India’s young people is to drop sharply in coming years as a consequence of the practice of aborting female fetuses, the Indian government has reported.
Among people ages 15 to 34, the number of women for every thousand men will drop to 898 in 2031, the government report shows using projections from the Wold Bank.
In 2011, the ratio was 939 women to 1.000 men.
loading...
The practice of abortion of female fetuses started in the 1980’s and has increased in frequency because of the introduction and proliferation of ultrasound technology that can show the gender of the fetus.
”People are selecting to have fewer children but selecting to have boys,” said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India.
According to Muttreja, the reasons for Indians’ preference for a male child are the perception that men will take care of their aging parents financially, the desire to pass lineage through a male heir and the fear of being financially crippled by a dowry.
India has outlawed prenatal sex determination in 1994, but that law is lax.
Poonam Muttreja says that Indians who have emerged into the middle class are limiting the size of their families and focusing their resources on male children, seen as more capable of making a good life for themselves.
Faced with the risk of sex selection, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the ”Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” campaign in 2014, aimed at raising awareness about the harm of gender preferences.
Loading...