Declining Juvenile Sex Ratios

Ravinder Kaur
Additional contact information
Ravinder Kaur: Ravinder Kaur is Associate Professor, Sociology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, e-mail: ravinder.iitd@gmail.com

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2007, vol. 1, issue 2, 231-245

Abstract: This article examines the socio-economic reasons for the steep decline in child sex ratios, as revealed by the 2001 census. It questions existing arguments in the light of new fieldwork in several states in North India. It argues that we have to unpack ‘son preference’ in the modern context to understand why parents continue to prefer boys over girls in many parts of North and North-West India, and especially so in urban areas. Although there is some narrowing of the gender gap (as seen in education, health and work force participation indicators), girls remain undervalued when it comes to intergenerational transfers. The article argues that the changing interrelationships between education, work, marriage and family status in some senses reinforce the perceived need for sons as the source of a family's future stability and parental support. Given these expectations, insecurities around the material and social success of sons, and largely unchanging or even enhanced marriage and dowry expenditure for girls, drive parents to invest more in sons and propel family- building strategies with few or no girls.

Keywords: JEL Classification:J1; JEL Classifi cation:I0; JEL Classification:Z1; Sex Ratio; Son-preference; Female Foeticide; Technology; Development; Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097380100700100204 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:mareco:v:1:y:2007:i:2:p:231-245

DOI: 10.1177/097380100700100204

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research from National Council of Applied Economic Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().