Gender Disparity: Its Manifestations, Causes and Implications

Sex Ratio: The District Scenario

Sex ratio (SR) is perhaps the oldest measure of gender inequality proposed in the literature. It is the number of women per 1000 men, popularly known as FMR (female male ratio). This ratio is essentially linked with the mortality rates of males and females. Women are biologically (Women have lower age specific mortality rates than men do by nature) the stronger sex, and hence enjoy a higher survival rate than men under normal situation. On an average, life expectancy of women is five years higher than that of men. In a society where there is no discrimination against women, there would be more women than men, and the ideal sex ratio would be more than 1000, which is true in North America and other developed countries. FMR in the world as a whole is about 0.97, which implies that in many countries women receive less attention and health care than men do. Amartya Sen thus defined the number of “missing women” as the difference between the actual surviving number of women and the number we could expect to see if there were no “bias against women in terms of health care and other attentions relevant for survival” (Sen, 2001 and 2005). It essentially reflects deep-rooted patriarchal system of male domination not only in the family but also in the community at large including occupational choices. When SR is calculated for total population (i.e., all age groups), it is automatically adjusted for inter-regional migration, which neutralizes in either direction the matter of sex selection in the particular state. It fails to represent the actual surviving women. We have, therefore, also used the SR for (0-6) years of age, or juvenile sex ratio for Census 2001 districts.