Gender Inequality and Falling Sex-Ratio in India: An Inter-State Analysis

Abstract

The study focuses on gender inequality that exists among India and prevents the growth of the economy. Gender inequality is diverse because it exists in almost every field like employment, income, health, education, political issues etc. Rapid decline in sex ratio (number of females per 1000 of males) and child sex ratio (number of girls per 1000 boys in between 0-6 years of age) has been a serious problem in India with severe demographic, socioeconomic and cultural implication. Sex ratio is an important social indicator to measure the inequality between males and females in a society at a given point of time. Obnoxious cultural preferences for sons, dowry system, social norm of smaller family size and various patriarchal cultural factors have resulted in male preference. The study is purely based on secondary data collected from various sources. The aim of this paper is to examine the inequality in the overall sex-ratio and child sex-ratio state-wise in India. The research has also shown the trend line of Gender Inequality Index of India for ten years. The trend line of GII reveals continuous downfall by India in gender equality. The research also shows sex ratio and child sex ratio in 2019-20 of 11 states and UT’s. The research unveils that there exists huge inter-state disparity in overall sex ratio as well as child sex ratio where among the 11 states the worst performing states in sex ratio are Dadra & Nagar Haveli, J&K, A&N Island, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Looking at the other side of the coin the research shows Lakshwadeep, Kerala, Bihar, Manipur and Telangana as the best performing states. On the other hand, for child sex ratio the figure shows Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Telanagan and Bihar as worst performing states. Further, the best performing states in child sex ratio is Ladakh, Lakshwadeep, Tripura, Meghalaya and Karnataka. The study also analyzes the degree of relationship between sex-ratio and other growth and health indicators. Empirical analysis has been done undertaken using panel data regression with fixed effect model and random effect model. In Fixed effect regression, only PCNSDP is significant variable indicating the influence of PCNSDP on Sex-Ratio. The other two variables i.e., IMR and TFR are found to be insignificant. However, the random effect result shows IMR to be significant, while TFR and PCNSDP to be insignificant. It is important to choose appropriate panel model for estimation from a fixed effect or random effect models. For selection of model, Hausman specification test has been applied. Lastly, the study has tried to suggest some important policy implications for overcoming gender inequality in India.  The government can make laws and policies for improving gender equality and female participation in labour sector. On the policy front it is also recommended to increase women’s participation in social, political and economic roles. Also changing deep-rooted psychology of older generation is difficult therefore attempts should be made to educate the younger generation and coming generation regarding the adverse effect of gender imbalance. Besides this, Government can design more result-oriented cash transfer schemes like Sukanya Samridhi Yojana, Balika Samridhi Yojana, Udaan etc.