Fertility Decline and Worsening Gender Bias in India: A Response to S. Irudaya Rajan et al.

Abstract

This paper presents the response of Alaka Malwade Basu to the comments by S. Irudaya Rajan et al. on the paper published by Basu in Development and Change in 1999. It is noted that Basu believes that the Kerala (India) model of social and demographic change is the primary path to gender equality. However this belief was challenged by Rajan and colleagues who provided a sobering corrective to the faith in the unchanging nature of gender equality of Kerala. Rajan et al. presented data that suggest that sex differentials in survival may be widening in Kerala and that there seems to be a worsening of relative female survival achieved through a mixture of pre- and post-birth discrimination in districts instead of an improvement in gender equality. In the paper Basu points out that Rajan et al. referred to 1991 census tables that he did not have access to when he wrote the 1999 paper. Basu also highlights the caution of Rajan et al. that there may be sampling errors in their data thus casting doubt on the implication of worsening gender bias.