Child sex ratio


In India, the child sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0-6 years in a human population. Thus it is equal to 1000 x the reciprocal of the sex ratio in the same age group, i.e. under age seven. An imbalance in this age group will extend to older age groups in future years. Currently, the ratio of males to females is generally significantly greater than 1, i.e. there are more boys than girls.
According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981 to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 108.8 in 2011. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana. The child sex ratio has been more prominent for males in India for quite a while, since the 1980s with thirty fewer females to males

Likelihood of an imbalanced child sex ratio

The natural "sex ratio at birth" is often considered to be around 105. This means that at birth on average, there are 105 males for every 100 females. Thus a significant departure from the ratio of 1.05 boys per every girl born indicates an imbalanced child sex ratio. Thus, India had a natural child sex ratio before 1981. A large city in India, Jhajjar had almost 15,000 more baby boys than baby girls, that is 128 boys per 100 girls.

Variables that change the child sex ratio

Sex-Selective Abortions

In the Asian culture, families want baby boys, because it is traditional that the boys take care of the parents, while the daughters marry and leave the family. These families want to ensure elderly security, therefore they want more boys in the family. Typically it cost more to have a daughter and they cannot contribute to the family nearly as much as the son can. These factors cause family to get an abortion because they want the variables that the boys have to offer, and unfortunately it causes the child male to child female sex ratio it be imbalanced.

Impact of skewed ratio

The impact of a skewed sex ratio—with more male children than females—is already being felt in some parts of India and China and is likely to continue to tighten the skewed ratio between genders.: