AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF IMBALANCED SEX RATIO IN HARYANA

ABSTRACT

India is the second largest country according to the population and there is a huge imbalance in the ratio of males to females. In other words we can say that India is one of the few countries in the world where males outnumber females. However, the high incidence of induced abortions and sharp decline in the child sex ratio in the last decade clearly proves the practice of female foeticide. Most of the scholars have pointed out that the increasing incidence of female foeticide has led to a drastic decrease in the number of girls to boys in India in the 0-6 age group. Therefore, the practice of eliminating female foetuses is believed to be one of the main reasons for the adverse child sex ratio. On the contrary, pre-birth elimination of females (PBEF) seems to be more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas, but the gap is rapidly decreasing because of easy availability of sex determination tests in rural areas. Sex ratio is an important social indicator to measure the extent of the prevailing equity between males and females in a society at a given point of time. Changes in sex ratio largely reflect the underlying socio-economic and cultural patterns of a society in different ways. The declining sex ratio is a matter of great concern, as it will lead to serious demographic imbalances and adverse social consequences. A large number of scholars in their studies have concluded that only a strong public awareness can curb the evil practice of female foeticide. The present research paper makes an analytical study of imbalanced sex ratio in Haryana.

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