Aggregated News
India’s early numbers for census 2011 released Thursday put the attention back on the India’s increasing population numbers and put a black mark on India’s growth story—the continued preference for sons over daughters.
The census has shown an improvement in the overall sex ratio to 940 females per 1,000 men from 933 women for every 1,000 men in the 2001 census. Individual states have also shown and improvement in ratios—except for the three states of Bihar, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. But among children, the gap is widening.
Among children up to the age of six, the number of girls to 1,000 boys shrank to 914 girls to every 1000 boys, a drop from 927 in 2001. The census figure also records this statistic as the lowest since the country’s independence in 1947.
Amid these dismal numbers there is a tiny cause for cheer. The states that had the worst sex ratios in the last census—Punjab and Haryana—and which have been the focus of the anti-female-feticide work of social work groups, showed somewhat improved sex ratios, although they were still...
The census has shown an improvement in the overall sex ratio to 940 females per 1,000 men from 933 women for every 1,000 men in the 2001 census. Individual states have also shown and improvement in ratios—except for the three states of Bihar, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. But among children, the gap is widening.
Among children up to the age of six, the number of girls to 1,000 boys shrank to 914 girls to every 1000 boys, a drop from 927 in 2001. The census figure also records this statistic as the lowest since the country’s independence in 1947.
Amid these dismal numbers there is a tiny cause for cheer. The states that had the worst sex ratios in the last census—Punjab and Haryana—and which have been the focus of the anti-female-feticide work of social work groups, showed somewhat improved sex ratios, although they were still...