RE-EVALUATING PRENATAL SEX-SELECTION and SON PREFERENCE in INDIA

Sylvie Dubuc, University of Strasbourg

As a result of sex-selection against females over 100 million girls were estimated to be ‘missing’ in Asia, with important implications for society and reproductive health policy. Prenatal sex-selection is generally evidenced by a bias in the sex-ratio at birth (SRB) in a population. However, since SRB bias is hyper-sensitive to fertility changes, I use the sex-selection propensity indicator developed by Dubuc and Sivia (2017), more robust for measuring sex-selection practices. Building on Dubuc and Sivia, the paper aims and objectives are twofold: 1) to measure and analyse sex-selection propensities across Indian states, by urban/rural populations and women’s educational attainment in order to re-assess the social diffusion process of gender-selection. 2) To propose the first (macro) measure of son preference intensity, currently not available. The paper presents and compares the new measures of sex-selection propensity and son preference. In doing so it analyses the diffusion of sex-selection practice and changes in son preference, for example showing the reduction of sex-selection practice among urban and educated women. The results and their policy implications are further discussed.

Keywords: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Gender Dynamics, Fertility, Population and Development

See extended abstract.