What are the causes and solutions for the low female sex-ratio in the DEMARU States of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, and Gujarat ?. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra are DEMARU states, where the sharp decline in the juvenile sex ratio. This is a cause of concern especially for DEMARU states which have higher per capita income and lower sex ratio (0-6) 846,867 and 886 respectively.
Reasons
- Deep rooted patriarchial mindset
- Sex selective abortions
- Improper implementation of the PCPNDT and MTP act
- Administrative and societal apathy towards misuse of laws
- Low participation of women at decision making at all the levels viz household; local; national and international
- Dowry system for which parents do not spend or do not give proper education to girl child further weakening her position in future
Impact
- Gender insensitization increase.
- Growth in cases of sexual abuse
- Representation of female will further reduce
- Emergence of social evils such as Polyandry in which a women is married with more than one male.
- Cases of marrying older person might increase.
- Shortage of brides leads to female trafficking.
As we have been experiencing many societal changes like improvement in literacy, economy, urbanisation in last few decades but we are not able to do away the gender bias along with these positives.
Solutions
- Improving the health of mothers through institutional deliveries, free pre- and post-natal check-ups.
- Banning use of modern tools for sex-selective abortions like Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.
- Removing biases in societal norms and values like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Andolan, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
- Gender Sensitising policy making like gender budgeting, 33% reservation in local bodies.
All such steps have helped tackle declining sex ratio to some extent like increase in overall sex ratio since 1991, increase in child sex ratio in Haryana (worst affected) since Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Andolan is a case in the point.
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