Sex Ratio
Sex Ratio refers to the number of females per thousand males of an area. According to the Census of India 2001, there are only 933 females per thousand males. So, sex composition in India is unfavourable.
It means there are less number of females than the number of males. When the number of females is more than the males it is said to be favourable. As far as states are concerned only Kerala has favourable sex ratio (1058). It has the highest sex ratio in the country.
The lowest sex ratio among states is found in Haryana (861). Among the Union Territories, Pondicherry has the highest sex ratio in the country with (1001) females per thousand males, whereas the lowest sex ratio is found in Daman and Diu where there was 709 females per thousand males. The significant trend with regard to the sex ratio in the country is that it has been a steadily declining except some marginal increases in the 1951, 1981 and now in 2001 censuses.
District Level Pattern
An overview of the district level data reveal that, out of 593 districts in the country, 324 districts record sex ratio above the national average i.e. 933 and 4 districts have the sex ratio equal to the national average. In other words, there are 55% of the total districts recorded sex ratio above the national average. Out of these 324 districts, there are as many as 78 districts spread over sixteen States or Union Territories have recorded sex ratio above unity.
Unity means Females are more than thousand per thousand males. The largest number of such districts are from Tamil Nadu (15) followed by Kerala (13) and Uttarakhand (8) while Chhatisgarh and Orissa have 7 districts each. Mahe in Pondicherry recorded highest sex ratio (1148) in the country followed by Almora in Uttarakhand (1147) and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra (1135).
If we look at their spatial distribution, it has been observed that there are three regions where sex ratio is favourable. First region is southern India consisting of majority districts of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, almost all the districts of Kerala and a few coastal districts of Karnataka. The second region is hills and plateau region of adjoining Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh dominated by tribals. The Third region is the Hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
On the contrary, there are 265 districts where sex ratio is below national average. Out of these 265 districts, there are 42 districts where sex ratio is below 850. Where are these districts located? Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Territory of Delhi has 8 districts each followed by Haryana (6). But within these 42 districts 10 districts are located in major cities 8 in NCT Delhi, 1 in Maharashtra i.e. Mumbai and the other one is Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The very low sex ratio in these cities may be due to the inflow of male migrant seeking work in the industrial, commercial, construction, informal and unorganised sectors of the economy. But the lowest sex ratio in terms of district is recorded in Daman district (591) followed by West Kameng (749) in Arunachal Pradesh and North districts (752) in Sikkim.
Why is there a decline in the sex ratio in India? The major reasons for the declining sex ratio in India are the higher rate of maternal mortality and a high child mortality among the female children. These two causes are related to the comparatively lower status of the women in our society. Apart from this our socio-religious values and beliefs like male preference in our society are responsible for the declining sex ratio.
The female mortality rate is likely to be reversed with the improving status of the women and also due to better medicare facilities and education particularly of the females. The improved medicare facilities have helped in checking the rate of child mortality and the deaths of mothers during child birth.
Summary
- The Sex ratio in India is unfavourable. On an average there are 933 females per thousand males in the country.
- The highest sex ratio of 1058 females per one thousand males is in Kerala and the lowest of 709 females per one thousand males is in Daman and Diu.
- The major reasons for the declining of sex ratio in India are high child mortality among the female children and low status of women in our society.