Women's Wellbeing and the Sex Ratio at Birth: Some Suggestive Evidence from India

Abstract

A declining sex ratio (SR) for a population has generally been diagnosed as an indicator of worsening female advantage, while a declining sex ratio at birth (SRB) - such as in the context of the Indian population over the recent past - has been diagnosed as being caused largely by the phenomenon of sex-selective foeticide. In this article, we examine the merits of a less sinister hypothesis in terms of which a secular improvement in women's wellbeing has led to a sex-neutral reduction in the rate of foetal wastage, and through that route, to a reduction in the SRB (and therefore in the overall SR of the population). We seek support for this hypothesis by examining evidence from India. We also discuss the implications of this line of reasoning for women's wellbeing, development and the significance of a declining sex ratio.

A Multinomial Model of Fertility Choice and Offspring Sex Ratios in India

“…However, urban residence is negatively correlated with family size and positively correlated with the proportion of daughters. Finally, we find that mothers whose height is less than 145cm -and, therefore, most likely experience greater foetal wastage than better nourished mothers -have fewer children, which is consistent with the predictions of Jayaraj and Subramanian's (2004) hypothesis. However, we also find that mothers with height less than 145cm do not have a higher proportion of daughters, a result that is inconsistent with Jayaraj and Subramanian's (2004) hypothesis.…”

“…Finally, we find that mothers whose height is less than 145cm -and, therefore, most likely experience greater foetal wastage than better nourished mothers -have fewer children, which is consistent with the predictions of Jayaraj and Subramanian's (2004) hypothesis. However, we also find that mothers with height less than 145cm do not have a higher proportion of daughters, a result that is inconsistent with Jayaraj and Subramanian's (2004) hypothesis. These results show that lower fertility and lower female-male offspring sex ratios are both characteristic of Sikh and non-low caste Hindu households, as well as wealthier ones and suggest that rising wealth may deteriorate India's already imbalanced sex ratios.…”

“…As Jayaraj and Subramanian (2004) show, women's wellbeing or nutrition may also influence the offspring sex ratio. According to their hypothesis, a gender-neutral reduction in the foetal wastage rate (spontaneous abortions and stillbirths) brought about by an improvement in maternal wellbeing, will decrease the number of daughters born per sons.…”

Daughter Elimination in Tamil Nadu, India: A Tale of Two Ratios

“…If parents follow a strategy of noninterference in the first pregnancy while intervening in subsequent pregnancies to ensure that a boy is born, then the SRB will decline with birth order, as observed in our primary data. On the other hand, if parents choose to intervene in the first pregnancy to ensure that their first born is a boy and intervene less in subsequent pregnancies then the SRB will increase with birth order, as observed in the data analysed by Jayaraj and Subramanian (2004) and Jha et al (2006).…”

“…While elimination of daughters may not be the only reason for the large daughter deficit, given the temporal decline in the sex ratio and the sex ratio pattern across birth order, it does seem to be the most plausible explanation. In the Indian context, two recent papers have argued that, in part, the unexpectedly masculine SRB may be driven by the incidence of Hepatitis B virus infection (Oster, 2005) and improvement in women's health status which may reduce foetal wastage and, in turn, lead to masculine SRB (Jayaraj and Subramanian, 2004). While these alternatives may explain some of the inequality in the sex ratio at birth, it is hard to see how they could be responsible for the steady temporal decline in the SRB and the 0-6 sex ratio, the gender differential IMR and the sex ratio across birth orders.…”