Sex ratio has always been a problem in India. The number of girls always lags in comparison to the number of boys. And no matter how much aware we think our society has become, there is still long way to go when it comes to fixing the gender ratio. It is this kind of imbalance which causes so many other problems in our society. Even vice versa of it can be considered as true.
If we look at the statistics, the Census report of 2011 shows that the population difference between boys and girls is almost 77 lakh in the age group 14-18. Taking the population growth rate in India of 1.2% into account and assuming the ratio remains unaltered, this year, i.e. 2015 there will be almost 81 lakh boys who won’t be getting a girl to marry. A shocking fact, right?
One of the major reasons why this monstrous gap exists is because of the general hatred which the society has against a girl child. Practices like abortion and infanticide are still in full swing everywhere. If you think that this happens only in rural areas and not in urban cities then you are completely mistaken. The Census data of 2011 says that the sex ratio in age group 0-15 is 900 in urban areas and it increases to 920 when you look into the rural places. This startling statistic clearly exemplifies the fact that sex selective abortion is more in cities than in villages which is ironical considering that the general perception of the people is that it is the villages which need more awareness and not the cities.
In spite of the government running so many campaigns and awareness programs to stop the discrimination between a girl child and a boy child, the general mindset of the people that women are the weaker sex, just doesn’t seem to change. In the quest to have a male child, the population takes a severe hit every year. And this is something which definitely needs to stop.
Adopting ‘one child policy’ of China can be an option for the government to keep a check on the population but that too has repercussions. Early in the 1980s the sex ratio at the time of birth was 100 females to every 108 males but after ‘one child policy’ came into the picture, the Census records show that the ratio has increased to 118 boys to every 100 girls. It proves how the sex selective abortion has increased of late in China, and this can very much happen to India also if it ever plans to do so.
This leaves us with the only option of changing ourselves rather than depending on the government to enforce a law which may or may not bring a significant change. A girl child is as special as a boy child and we must learn to cherish this.
