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Indian families are becoming less likely to use abortions to ensure the birth of sons rather than daughters – leading to a narrowing sex ratio at birth, according to the latest Pew Research Center study analysing the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data from 2019-2021.
The narrowing of ratio of boys to girls at birth – which has been widening since 1970s from the use of prenatal diagnostic technology to facilitate sex-selective abortions – coincides with broader social changes such as rising education and wealth, the study inferred.
In the latest NFHS, conducted between 2019 and 2021, 15 percent of Indian women aged 15 to 49 reported wanting to have "more sons than daughters," while just 3 percent said they wanted otherwise.
Prenatal gender tests were available in India from the 1970s, however, were rare and expensive. From the 1980s, this became more widespread and affordable.
According to the 2011 census, sex ratio reached 111 boys per 100 girls – but this has changed in the last decade. It first narrowed to 109 in the 2015-16 NFHS and to 108 boys in the latest wave of the NFHS, conducted from 2019-21.
The Pew study, quoting the NFHS 2019-21, said that an ultrasound test was performed on nearly eight in 10 Indian pregnancies – almost 78 percent – in the five years leading up to the survey.
In comparison, only one-quarter of pregnancies had an ultrasound before the 2005-06 survey.
Decoding it further, the study stated, sex ratio at birth following ultrasound use during pregnancy is now 109 boys for every 100 girls. In the 2005-06 NFHS, it was 118.
The good news is over the past two decades, all of India’s major religious groups experienced a waning preference for sons, the Pew study inferred, adding that the change among Sikhs is "most pronounced."
In the most recent NFHS, just 9 percent of Sikh women said they wanted more sons than daughters, compared with three-in-ten in the 1998-99 survey, the Pew study reported.
Muslims and Hindus, who have traditionally shown India’s highest levels of son preference – as measured in surveys – have seen a "moderate decline," the Pew study said.
Muslim women, however, now form the largest of those saying they would prefer more sons than daughters (19 percent in 2019-21 vs. 34 percent in 1998- 99), followed by Hindus (15 percent vs 34 percent).
Apart from education and wealth, a major factor that plays a role is fertility – as parents who plan to have fewer children may prefer to have a boy.
The NFHS data reveals yet another indicator of widespread son preference – married women with no living sons are much more likely than those with no living daughters to say they want to have more children (59 percent vs 41 percent), the Pew study said.
"Such gender bias in fertility desire is most striking among Sikhs. In the 2019-21 survey, six-in-ten married Sikh women with no living sons said they want to have more children, double the share of Sikhs with no living daughters who voiced the same desire," the study said.
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Published: 23 Aug 2022,07:52 PM IST