Answer: 

Introduction:

India’s sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) was 943 in 2011. But this is not the picture of all of India. According to the NITI Aayog’s SDG 2019 Index, the sex ratio in Punjab fell from 893 to 886 in 2019. Haryana has performed worse than Punjab, having a sex ratio of 833. These are states with high per capita incomes but still perform badly in the case of Sex ratio, while the data is better in Bihar, Jharkhand and socially and economically weaker societies.

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Body:

Reasons for increasing prosperity leading to adverse sex ratio can be seen as follows:

• Son-Preference: Parents still believe they will be better taken care of in their old age by men, as men are perceived as the principal wage earners of the family.
• Educated women desire only one child: Many of the young couple’s desire smaller families as the educated women have greater bodily choices. But these couples prefer a male child because the lone child would inherit their property.
• Property: The prosperous regions of India attach high value to their property. The social norms are such that only the male child gets to inherit the property. Due to this, the families prefer a male child.
• Social Practices: Despite banning dowry and making it a criminal offense, the dowry system is still prevalent in India. In many cases dowry is taken even if the bride herself is economically independent.
• Accessibility to postnatal sex selection techniques: Better income and awareness of postnatal sex selection techniques makes it easy for couples to access such technology, even if banned by law.
  • Child sex ratio reflects the imbalance between the number of girls and boys, indicating that the practice of sex selection (along with other factors such as selective neglect of girls) have led to a drastic decline in the number of girls compared to the number of boys.

Conclusion:

Changes in the society’s mindset, better enforcement of dowry and sex-selective abortion laws along with changes in inheritance laws would be instrumental in improving the sex ratio in the prosperous states. Population control must not be about controlling the birth of females alone. Although India has been successful in reducing its population growth rates near to TFR levels, India has a long way to go to achieve a balanced sex ratio.