Another example of increasing misogyny: Sex Ratio goes down, so do the fertility rates
India is heading towards the way of becoming the most populous country in the world. According to the reports, India would soon overcome china as the most populous country in the world by 2027. India, however, has registered a decline in the birth rate for another year. The skewed sex ratio plunged to 896 for the three years from 2015-17 from 898 in 2014-16.
Sex ratio describes the number of females per 1000 males. In the reports of SRS in 2011, there were 940 females per 1000 males. It has been decreased to 896 from 2015- 17 which is a major cause to worry about. This translates that 11.7 lakh girls are missing in the country from the past three years. Five of these large states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat with poor sex ratio are responsible for the two-third of those missing girls.
As Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 3.5 lakh missing girls followed by Rajasthan with 1.4 lakh and Bihar with 1.2 followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra with 1 lakh missing girls from past three years.
At present, the lowest sex ratio in India is in Haryana, where the sex ratio is only 879 whereas the highest sex ratio is in Kerala (1084). Some of the states like Punjab, Gujarat, and Haryana have shown gradual improvement from past years in spite of their worst SRB record. But the states with the highest birth rates like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh have shown a decline in sex ratio which leads India’s sex ratio to fall.
The fertility rate which is defined as the number of children likely to be born as females have dropped steadily. In 2017, it was merely 2.2 against 2.3 in the year 2013. It was estimated to be very close to the replacement level of 2.1 in the same year.
Considering all the reports and facts mentioned above, it clearly shows how misogyny and sexism in our country have been increasing from past years. Through the advancement in technology, people get to know the sex of the child and this leads to sex-selective abortions. This clearly explains those 11.5 lakh missing girls in our country.
One of the major reasons for this is Societal Pressure, the pressure society has created to prefer boys in the family. This has been going on since patriarchy has taken a huge place in our country. The Societal pressure has been killing all these women since then. If in any way, our country can move forward, the patriarchy has to end.
But what is the solution to this alarming skewed sex ratio? This misogyny can’t be hidden and there has to be an immediate solution to this.