Q1.
Census figures of 2001 as well as 2011 show the overall number of females per 1,000 males being much less than 1,000. Some states, however, had over 1,000 or near 1,000 (Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu). What might be the reasons for this?
Answer
Because the sex ratio is not a fact of biology — it is a record of how long women live and of how they are treated, and both differ sharply between states. First, the size of the national gap:
Census 2001: 933 females per 1,000 males
Census 2011: 943 females per 1,000 males — an improvement of 10
In 2011, women were 48.5% of the population: 1210 million × 48.5% ≈ 587 million women and ≈ 623 million men
Difference ≈ 36 million
Census 2011: 943 females per 1,000 males — an improvement of 10
In 2011, women were 48.5% of the population: 1210 million × 48.5% ≈ 587 million women and ≈ 623 million men
Difference ≈ 36 million
A ratio of 943 means 57 fewer women than men for every 1,000 men. Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu stand near or above 1,000. Four reasons are worth weighing:
- Women outlive men when both get the same care. Given equal food, healthcare and safety, women live several years longer than men — you can see this in the very last question of this chapter, where India’s female life-expectancy line rises above the male line from about 1980 onwards. In a state where women receive healthcare on the same terms as men, they accumulate in the older age groups, and the overall ratio rises. Kerala fits: Fig. 6.19 shows it has the highest share of elderly in India (12.6 per cent), and an older population is also a more female one.
- Girls survive childhood in equal numbers where daughters are valued equally. Where girls receive the same food, medical attention and schooling as their brothers, girl-child mortality is no higher than boys’. Where they do not, it is — and the ratio falls. The chapter says the sex ratio “reflects the country’s socio-economic and cultural dynamics”, which is exactly this.
- Female education and health services. The states with a high sex ratio are also the states with high female literacy — Kerala and Tamil Nadu — and Fig. 6.11 shows how strongly female literacy is linked to other demographic outcomes. Educated mothers use antenatal and child health services more, and their daughters are more likely to survive and to be counted.
- Male out-migration. The census counts people where they are living. A state from which large numbers of working-age men migrate for work — Kerala is the best-known Indian example — is left with more women per 1,000 men among the residents actually counted.
Why an improving ratio matters: the chapter says “a balanced sex ratio is vital for equitable development, social stability, and sustainable population growth.” The last of those three is the demographic point: it is women who bear the next generation, so the number of women in the child-bearing ages, not just the fertility rate, decides how many babies are born. A society short of women is also, a generation later, short of births.
Check it yourself: if there are 943 females for every 1,000 males, the female share of the population is 943 ÷ (943 + 1000) = 943 ÷ 1943 = 0.4853, that is 48.5 per cent — exactly the figure the chapter gives for 2011. Doing the same for 2001: 933 ÷ 1933 = 0.4827, or 48.3 per cent. The whole improvement over the decade was about two-tenths of a percentage point.