Sign In
Learn bits
Polity & Governance
Mahesh

24/08/22 05:20 AM IST

Pew Report on Sex Ratio at Birth in India

In News 
  • The latest study by Pew Research Center has pointed out that “son bias” is on a decline in India and the average annual number of “baby girls missing” in India fell from approx. 4.8 lakh in 2010 to 4.1 lakh in 2019.
Key Findings 
  • Average annual number of baby girls “missing” in the country fell from 480,000 (4.8 lakh) in 2010 to 410,000 (4.1 lakh) in 2019.
  • The “missing” refers to how many more female births would have occurred during this time if there were no female-selective abortions.
  • Bridging the Sex Ratio at Birth Gap: From a large imbalance of about 111 boys per 100 girls in India’s 2011 census, the sex ratio at birth appears to have normalised slightly over the last decade.
  • Sex Ratio at Birth in India narrowed to about 109 in the 2015-16 wave of the National Family Health Survey and to 108 boys in the latest wave of the NFHS, conducted from 2019-21.
  • Sex-Selective Abortions: The Pew Research Center report points out that between 2000 and 2019, nine crore female births went “missing” because of female-selective abortions.
Religion wise sex selection 
  • Among Sikhs: The report has also analysed religion-wise sex selection, pointing out that the gap was the highest for Sikhs.
  • The study points out that while the Sikhs make up less than 2% of the Indian population, they accounted for an estimated 5%, or approximately 440,000 (4.4 lakh), of the nine crore baby girls who went “missing” in India between 2000 and 2019.
  • In the 2001 census, Sikhs had a sex ratio at birth of 130 males per 100 females, far exceeding that year’s national average of 110.
  • By the 2011 census, the Sikh ratio had narrowed to 121 boys per 100 girls.
  • It now hovers around 110, about the same as the ratio of males to females at birth among the country’s Hindu majority (109).
  • Both Christians (105 boys to 100 girls) and Muslims (106 boys to 100 girls) have sex ratios close to the natural norm, and this trend is holding.
Sex Ratio 
  • It is the number of females born per thousand males.
  • It is an important indicator to map the gender gap in a population.
  • The sex ratio report in India is published by the Registrar General of India.
Source- The Hindu 

More Related Current Affairs View All

17 Sep

Reasons Behind the heavy rain in Uttarakhand, Himachal

'Dehradun and several other districts in Uttarakhand have experienced very heavy rainfall over the past few days, triggering landslides in multiple areas and causing rivers to swel

Read More

08 Sep

Rajasthan’s coaching centre Bill

'The Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, is a significant piece of legislation passed by the Rajasthan Assembly to regulate and oversee the state's burg

Read More

28 Aug

IADT-1

'Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out its first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1), a crucial milestone in the preparation for the countr

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps