Child sex ratio and Sex Ratio at Birth in districts of India: Patterns and Correlates

Rajesh Chauhan, Directorate Of Economics & Statistics, The Planning Department, Government Of Uttar Pradesh

Along with development and demographic transition, Indian states are experiencing secular decline in child sex ratio at varying degree. While increasing sex-selective abortions and excess female childhood mortality are typically cited reasons of decline, little is known about the role of clustering and other socio-demographic variables in explaining decline of CSR. Using data from alternative sources apart from three consecutive censuses, this paper decomposes variation of CSR across 707 districts in India. This study aims at analyzing recent data from National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) and data from Health Management Information System (HMIS) at district level to identify geographical areas of concern. There has been 26 points decline in CSR in India during past two decades (1991 to 2011); at micro level 56 percent of districts display CSR to be biased towards males (NFHS-5). There is a wide variation in sex ratio and child (0-6 years) sex ratio in states and districts of India. Typically the sex ratio is imbalanced and more males are present in more than 90 percent states of India in 2011 and declined to 80 percent states as per HMIS 2019-2021. Multivariate analysis reveals a larger variation explained by the social variables than the demographic variables.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Data and Methods

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