University of South Australia, Flinders University, Australia and Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Adelaide, Email: riaz.hassan@unisa.edu.au
Online published on 17 February, 2017.
Economic growth in India has delivered significant welfare dividends by reducing social and economic inequalities in the country but it has not affected the endemic gender bias in mortality. In fact the magnitude of the problem of gender imbalance has increased since it was first identified by Amartya Sen twenty five years ago. Whatever benefits may have accrued from economic growth and implementation of public policies to redress the problem have been counterbalanced by aggravating child sex ratio due to the increasing practice of selective abortion of female fetuses. This practice is more prevalent among the more educated and affluent women and in the northern and the western but not in the southern and the eastern Indian states. The paper explores possible factors contributing to this problem.
Missing women, Sex ratios, Feticide, Natality, Mortality rates, Religion
