A STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS AND DECLINE CHILD SEX RATIO IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

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1 A STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS AND DECLINE CHILD SEX RATIO IN HIMACHAL PRADESH PIAR CHAND RYHAL AND SHASHI PUNAM IntroductIon Considering that India has undergone significant economic and social changes in the past eighteen years, why are female children still at risk despite marked progress in female literacy and increased participation of women in economic and political life? In much of South Asia, sons are preferred over daughters for a number of economic, social and religious reasons, including financial support, old age security, property inheritance, dowry, family lineage, prestige and power, birth and death rituals and beliefs about religious duties and salvation. 1-6 The declining number of females compared to the number of males in Indian population has been a cause for concern during the past three decades brought to attention the growing gender discrimination by analyzing the malefemale sex ratio The results of the 2001 census have further intensified the debate. The main focus has been on the increasing masculinity of the child sex ratio. India already has an abysmal sex ratio, with 80 percent of its districts recording a declining child sex ratio since 1991, as thousand of girls children are being killed before or at birth. This is according to a new report by UNICEF on the global status of children. Kerala, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep Islands are the only exceptions to this rule. 11 The female to male ratio in Himachal Pradesh rose from 884 females per 1000 males in 1901 to 912 in 1951 to 976 (second only to Kerala) in In light of the sharp decrease in the sex ratio for India as a whole, during the same period, this is an extraordinary achievement. But the census figures of and shows a worrying trend in Himachal Pradesh, where less than 900 girls to 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years has been reported. During the past 50 years, the gap between the number of women and men Piar Chand Ryhal, Professor and Shashi Punam, Research Scholar, Department of Applied Science and Humanities, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur , Himachal Pradesh. 70 The Journal of Family Welfare

2 was increasing rapidly. During the last 10 years there has been a sharp decline in the sex ratio in general and the child sex ratio in particular, although health and social indicators in Himachal Pradesh have climbed from below the national average to levels that approach or exceed those of Kerala. Himachal Pradesh is one of the fastest growing economies in India, increase in productivity in agriculture from 1951 to As of , its poverty rate was less than percent, the national average (21.8%).15 The greatest parities in wealth that characterize most of India were less severe in Himachal Pradesh. It has also excelled in its commitment to public education: per capita Government expenditure on education and teachers to population ratio has been increased against the national average and the result has been impressive. In 1951, the literacy rate in Himachal Pradesh was only 7.7 percent, the lowest in India, and less than one half the national average,16 however, the literacy rate of the state surpassed the national average and by 2001 it had far exceeded it. In addition, indicators of health and social well being in Himachal Pradesh has improved dramatically: rate of infant mortality 36 per thousand live births and total fertility rate 1.9 percent, the percentage of married women aged 15 to 19 has been reported as three percent and prenatal care and child vaccinations (74%) is above the national average, (NFHS-3). 17 Even then, the declining child sex ratio has become a disturbing fact and raises a pertinent question: where have 632,101 girls in Himachal Pradesh gone? It means that discrimination against females is engineered even before the birth through female foeticide in the one of the most progressive hilly states of India. This is being practiced by educated women, better off sections of the population, and it is more rampant among rural areas of Himachal Pradesh. Keeping in view the above facts, the present study has been designed with the objective to study the declining child sex ratio in Himachal Pradesh and to study the relationships between declining child sex ratio and selected human development indicators. Methodology This paper is based on Census and NFHS-II data. results and discussion In Himachal Pradesh, the median age at marriage is 19.7 years among women aged years, three years more than the national average age of Among women age years in Himachal Pradesh, only a very small proportion (3%) have begun childbearing, compared with 16 percent at the national level. Himachal Pradesh whose rank in development indicators such as education, literacy, and health is very high shows a tendency for skewed sex ratio. Table 1 shows the decline in child sex ratio in all except two districts of Himachal Pradesh. The Table shows the declining trend of child sex ratio of girls in the state from 1971 to The child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years has dipped to 896 from 982 in Himachal Pradesh from 1971 to 2001, four districts namely Kangra (836), a decline of 103 points; Una (839), a decline of 84 points; Hamirpur (864), a decline of 72 points; Bilaspur (884), a decline of 37 points; from census point of view these are considered as red alert districts of the state. All districts of the state except Lahul and Sapiti and Kinnour have shown decrease in child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years in This may be because in these areas access to technology (including pre-natal diagnostic tests) and services coupled with purchasing power. The lack of infrastructure in tribal areas has allowed the girl child to survive, in other words where the difference is less between rural and urban infrastructure in terms of roads and general mobility, the disparity in child sex ratio is higher. The tribal belt of Vol. 55, No. 1, June

3 Himachal Pradesh is very difficult to have access, therefore, these districts have better child sex ratio than other districts. TABLE 1 District-wise distribution of child sex ratio in Himachal Pradesh ( ) District Child Child Child Child sex ratio sex ratio sex ratio sex ratio (2001) (1991) (1981) (1971) Hamirpur Kangra Mandi Una Bilaspur Chamba Kullu Sirmour Shimla Solan Kinnour Lahul & Sapiti Himachal Pradesh Source: Directorate of Census Operations, Shimla, The districts namely Kangra, Una, Hamirpur and Bilaspur are the more literate districts of the state and have less than 900 girls in the age group of 0-6 years in It may be because these districts are adjoining to the states of Punjab and Haryana, where access to modern technology is easily available. People of these districts have both access and money to misuse technology. That is why Donna Fernandis of the Vimochana forum for women rights, has rightly said that sex selection is the instance of how technology in globalised economy had dragged even the foetus to market place. Secondly, literacy rate in these districts are much higher than the rest of the districts in the state. This shows that most probably sex ratio has nothing to do with literacy or being educated to imbalance the sex ratio at birth. These findings conform with the study of Bhargava and Hiremith18 who found, that higher the level of female literacy lower will be the child sex ratio indicating higher usage of sex determination test by literate women. The immediate fall out of this decline in sex ratio will be a significant decline in marriage of women in the coming year. Preference for a male child may be one of the causes for sharp decline in child sex ratio in Himachal Pradesh; there appears to be sex selective abortions occurring. The study has shown consistency with the result of earlier studies. A pronounced preference of a male child has been found to be pervasive in Indian society, affecting both attitudes and behavior with respect to 1, 4, children. A decreasing trend is observed not only in the overall child sex ratio of urban areas of Himachal Pradesh but also in rural areas. An alarming decline has been found during the period 1991 to 2001 as Table 2 clearly indicates that in Himachal Pradesh 30 percent villages are having a child sex ratio of less than 700, 4.6 percent villages have a child sex ratio between , six percent villages have a child sex ratio between This may be because all these villages are well connected with roads and having more mobility in comparison to the far-flung climatically harsh areas of Himachal Pradesh. Over six percent (6.4%) villages have a child sex ratio between and 5.3 percent villages have a child sex ratio between Only less than 50 percent villages have a child sex ratio of more than 900 females per 1000 males. TABLE 2 Child (0-6 years) sex ratio of villages of Himachal Pradesh Sex ratio No. of % Cumulative villages % <700 5, , , , , Himachal Pradesh 17, Source: Directorate of Census Operations, Shimla The Journal of Family Welfare

4 The reason for the worsening of the sex ratio in Himachal Pradesh is indicated by the higher prevalence in urban areas despite higher levels of education and affluence as compared to rural areas, is the availability of PNDT despite laws banning its misuse. The number of girls in rural areas is 900 per 1000 boys compared with a grimmer 844 in urban areas. While investigating urban/rural differences in child sex ratio in this study the difference in child sex ratio between rural and urban areas have been increasing mostly in high altitude hilly districts of Himachal Pradesh. In urban areas there are more advanced health facilities, high economic resources, income status and better educational facilities. In urban areas, the health advancement can adversely affect the female to male ratio by providing the couples facility of medical termination of pregnancies after the Pre Natal Sex Determination Test. TABLE 3 District-wise rural and urban child sex ratio (2001) Districts Total Rural Urban Difference Kinnaur Lahul & Sapiti Kullu Chamba Sirmour Shimla Mandi Solan Bilaspur Hamirpur Una Kangra Himachal Pradesh to younger women below 30 years of age, as indicated by the percent of women who want more sons than daughters (14-16% older women; 8% younger women) and percent who want at least one son (82% older women; 52-65% younger women). More women living in rural areas (12.3%) than urban areas (8%) want more sons than daughters, as also at least one son. A higher percent of women in urban areas (3.8%) than rural areas (1.8%) want more daughters than sons. Although the percent women who want more sons than daughters declined with increase in education, very little difference was noted for those wanting more daughters than sons. Although son preference cuts through wealth index, women falling under the lower wealth index showed a higher son preference than those belonging to the higher wealth index. Figure 1 clearly indicates that the desire for more children is also affected by the number of sons a woman has. For example, among married women with two children, all women with two sons and 99 percent of women with one son do not want to have an additional child, compared with 64 percent of women with Source: Directorate of Census Operations, Shimla Table 4 clearly shows son preference, with 12 percent women wanting more sons than daughters and 71 percent wanting at least one son, compared to two percent women who want more daughters than sons and 66 percent who want at least one daughter. Older women (30+ years) showed a higher son preference compared FIGURE 1 Affect of number of living boys and girls on desire for additional children Source : National Family Health Survey-3 Vol. 55, No. 1, June

5 TABLE 4 Indicators of sex preference in Himachal Pradesh (NFHS-3) Background Number of Percentage of Percentage of Percentage of Percentage of characteristic women women who women who want women who women who want more sons more daughters want at least want at least than daughters than sons one son one daughter Age Residence Urban Rural Education (completed) No education <5 years years or more years Wealth index Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest Total Source: National Family Health Survey-3 two daughters. In the NFHS-3 women who gave a numerical response to the question on the ideal number of children, were also asked how many of these children they would like to be a boy and how many they would like to be a girl; and for how many would the sex not matter. The result showed a consistent preference for sons over daughters. The percentage of women not desiring an additional child increased with the number of living sons. It may be due to the declining fertility rate of among Himachali women, because in Himachal Pradesh, woman have an average of 1.9 children in her life time (at par with Kerala and 0.1 above Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Tamil Nadu). Fertility in Himachal Pradesh was already at replacement level at the time of NFHS-2 having decreased by 0.9 children between year 1998 to 1999 and It has further declined by 0.2 children in the state is now well below replacement level. Women who are having 5-9 years of education, women belonging to SC and women in the fourth wealth quintile have highest fertility rate ( children per woman). In the event of fertility decline, the preference for the male child becomes stronger. Thus, discrimination may be more visible when fertility declines. Discrimination in allocation of resources may also be practiced when demand for resources exceeds the supply. In the event of high fertility and high mortality net demand of resources may be low, enabling parents to avoid discrimination. However, when population increases and demand for resources increases, parents distribute limited resources to the advantage of the male child. Population growth may, 74 The Journal of Family Welfare

6 therefore, trigger the discrimination resulting in imbalance of the sex ratio. A less than exhaustive list of variables that may have a bearing on the child sex ratio and its decline can include: socioeconomic status of community reflected by female literacy; availability of various civil amenities reflected by urbanization; infant morality rate; a bias for male child among couple/ households. A comparative study of twelve districts of Himachal Pradesh given in Table 5 shows that Kinnaur, Lahul-Sapiti, Shimla and Solan have a lower overall sex ratio, on the other hand Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur have much higher sex ratio. This study shows that seven districts are having higher child sex ratio than the overall sex ratio. The situation is entirely different of the Child Sex Ratio in other five districts. The Child Sex Ratio in case of nine districts in rural areas is better than the urban areas. Child Sex Ratio in urban areas of six districts is less than 850 and in case of rural areas only one district namely Una has less than 850. Una and Hamirpur districts have shown that rural-urban difference in Child Sex Ratio has already started reducing. The relationship between the Child Sex Ratio and literacy seems to be inverse districts with highest literacy rate have lower child sex ratio than the districts relatively with lowest literacy rate i.e. less than 80 percent. Districts Kangra, Una and Hamirpur have more than 80 percent literacy rate but the Child Sex Ratio is nearly or less than 850. Districts Solan, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmour, have more than 70 percent literacy rate in comparison to Child Sex Ratio less than 950. It is also observed that women with lowest literacy in rural areas are having better Child Sex Ratio than the literacy rate in comparison to Kangra, Hamirpur and Una having nearly 80 percent or more than 80 percent rural literacy rate have child Sex Ratio less than 850. District Kangra, Una and Hamirpur also have more than 73 percent female literacy rate and more than 72 percent rural female literacy rate but the Child Sex Ratio is less than 850. It is argued that women s education is the key to reducing discrimination against daughters. However, female literacy has risen even as Child Sex Ratio has fallen. Some studies have shown that educated mothers are more efficient in discriminating against daughters than uneducated mothers.21,24 But it is not true in the case of Kerala, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep Island are only exceptions to this rule. For the past 30 years, high female literacy has not prevented Himachal Pradesh from showing increased discrimination against female children. The Table also indicates that female work participation is more than 40 percent in the rural areas of ten districts out of twelve districts of Himachal Pradesh. But in case of urban areas it is much lower than rural areas. Literature on women often argue that women s labour force participation increase investment in female children and lower level of discrimination inspite of cultural preferences for sons.3,6 However, empirical literature has failed to show a strong direct connection. It is evident from the Table that human development does not mean more education, better health and a minimum income to live a reasonably decent life, it can never be complete without gender equality and attention to women s status Clark25 has also found that increase in social economic development and welfare contributes to continuing, and often more pronounced son preference. In fact, declining Child Sex Ratio in Himachal Pradesh reaffirms the central thesis of all human development resources, that economic prosperity in terms of a better per capita income need not necessarily lead to overall human development as reflected in the broad dimension of well being. It is argued that with increase in family income and education of women, in particular, it would start a process that would ensure equal status to women, which would help increasing the sex ratio Vol. 55, No. 1, June

7 TABLE 5 Gender and human development variables in Himachal Pradesh Geogra- Percentage Female work phical of decadal Female participation area growth of Sex ratio Literacy literacy rate sq. kms. population (Percentage to ( ) total population) Total Population 0-6 age group Districts Decadal Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban growth Kinnaur Lahul & Sapiti Kullu Chamba Sirmour Shimla Mandi Solan Bilaspur Hamirpur Una Kangra HP Source: Census of India, Himachal Pradesh 76 The Journal of Family Welfare

8 of the population which had occurred in some developed countries. But the ground reality is quite contrary in case of Himachal Pradesh, where development has been made in the field of agriculture and horticulture, infrastructural facilities such as power generation, roads, connectivity, transportation, health, employment generation, and educational facilities are much better in the state. It is, today, quoted as a successful model of not only hill area development, but also for having realized a sort of revolution in the level of social development such as education, health and social services. If we look at the scenario in Himachal Pradesh, we would find that increase in income and education of women has resulted in a biased attitude towards females, even before birth the sharply declining Child Sex Ratio (0-6 years) is most realistic indicator of the trend in sex selection abortion and continuing discrimination against the girl child. It constitutes a relatively stable population not migrating for education, work and marriage. In other words, we can say that one consequence of social and economic development could be fewer girls in the population compared to boys. This suggests that development in the form of education and reducing the gender gap in literacy does not automatically lead to more equal conditions for women and girls in terms of sex ratio.26 Increasing access to various aspects of modern life has imputed new values in the form of lower fertility and smaller family size, higher education and mobility, and higher mean age at marriage. These factors have been the main components in the process of an ongoing social change in India and have contributed to the declining trend in child sex ratio These findings pertaining to gender and human development variables in Himachal Pradesh is substantiated by these studies. Hence, declining Child Sex Ratio in Himachal Pradesh must be understood in the light of changing social and economic development context. conclusion A lot of development has been made in Himachal Pradesh in the field of education, health, female literacy and female work participation. But this development does not reflect Child Sex Ratio. The districts with high literacy have lower Child Sex Ratio than the districts with lowest literacy. Lowest female literacy in rural areas show better Child Sex Ratio than higher literacy in urban areas. Increase in family income and female work participation shows a bias towards the girl child, even before birth. Human development does not mean more education, better health and a minimum income to lead to reasonable better life, it can never be completed without gender equality. The decreasing Child Sex Ratio will impact the demographic and social system adversely. Hence, the declining Child Sex Ratio in Himachal Pradesh must be understood in the light of the changing context of social and economic development. references 1. Arnold, F., Choe, M.K. and Roy, T.K Son preference, the family building process, and child mortality in India. Population Studies, 52 (2): Basu, A.K Culture, the status of women and demographic behavior; illustrated with the case of India, New York: Oxford University Press. 3. Bardhan, P.K Little girls and death in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 17(36): Das Gupta, Bhat, M.P.N., Mari Fertility decline and increased manifestation of sex bias in India. Population Studies, 51(4): Kishor, S May god give sons to all: Gender and child mortality in India. American Sociological Review, 58(2): Miller, B.D The endangered sex: Neglects of female children in rural North India Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 7. Visaria, P Sex ratio of the population of India. Monograph No. 10, Census of India, Vol. 55, No. 1, June

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