Declining Sex Ratio: A Socio-Cultural Study in District Kathua of Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Son preference has been one of the most evident manifestations of patriarchal society. In India right from her birth, a girl child is treated by the society, including her parents as a burden because of various traditional beliefs and misconceptions of the society. The reaction of the family members is different towards the girl's rights right from the birth. Often the girl is born and brought up in an atmosphere where the family would have rather preferred a boy in her place. This attitude of acceptance to large extent affects her existence. Those who survive are also discriminated and neglected in numerous ways. Sex ratio is understood as the number of females per thousand males. All over the world, the ratio of female-male population is favorable for women except in developing countries like India where males outnumber females. The sex ratio in India has declined drastically since 1961 from 976 to 927 in 2001. In this paper both primary and secondary sources were used. It aims to throw light on valuable information about declining sex ratio in some districts of Jammu and Kashmir particularly in reference to the provisional data released by Census 2011 while looking more specifically at the trends in Kathua district which had showed a decline compared to 2001 census. Kathua has shown a decline from 898 in 2001 to 877 in 2011. Kathua ranked at 12th position in 2001 while it has now dipped to 14th position as far as the district wise sex ratio in the state of J&K is concerned. The present paper is an attempt to understand at the micro level the socio-cultural factors that have traditionally undervalues daughters compared to sons and how such factors are contributing in declining sex ratio in the present area of Kathua district in J&K.