Son Preference In India Research Articles

Women’s Empowerment and Son Preference: The Case of India

The purpose of this article is to explore the changing patterns of women’s empowerment and son preference at the Indian sub-national level. We have measured the state-level degree of women’s empowerment and son preference for two different periods, that is, 2015–2016 and 2019–2020 using the fourth and fifth rounds state-level National Family Health Survey data. The sample of the study consists of women who can potentially have son preference. The study has examined whether the mean level of women’s empowerment and son preference has changed significantly between the two concerned time periods. The categorisation and cluster analysis of the states is done based on the degree of women’s empowerment and son preference. To explore the degree of association between son preference and women’s empowerment and its indicators, a correlation matrix is formed. No significant increase in the mean level of son preference is found whereas the average value of the degree of women’s empowerment increased significantly in 2019–2020 compared to 2015–2016. Further, the states categorised as having comparatively strong women’s empowerment do not necessarily have a comparatively low level of son preference. No significant association between women’s empowerment and son preference is explored through the correlation matrix as well. Thus, the study leads to the conclusion that son preference in India has no significant association with women’s empowerment.

Son preference and education Inequalities in India: the role of gender-biased fertility strategies and preferential treatment of boys

We investigate the impact of son preference in India on gender inequalities in education. We distinguish the impact of preferential treatment of boys from the impact of gender-biased fertility strategies (gender-specific fertility stopping rules and sex-selective abortions). Results show strong impacts of gender-biased fertility strategies on education inequalities between girls and boys. Preferential treatment of boys also matters but appears to have a more limited impact for most outcomes. Further, our results suggest that gender-biased fertility strategies create gender inequalities in education both because girls and boys end up in systematically different families and because of gender inequalities in pecuniary investment within families. Since gender inequalities in education in India are partially the result of gender-biased fertility strategies, they are not likely to disappear until the strong desire to have a son does so.

Maternal Son Preference in India: Exploring its Determinants

Maternal Son Preference in India: Exploring its Determinants

Sex preference in India: Trends, patterns and determinants

BackgroundSex preference, particularly son preference is common in India. The present study explores the trends, patterns and determinants of sex preference in India. MethodsThe unit level data come all the four rounds of Indian National Family Health Survey. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the factors affecting sex preference in India. ResultsThe results revealed that preferring of son has decreased (from 35.6% to 20.3%) while daughter preference has slightly increased in India during 1992–93 to 2015–16. The multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that the caste, religion, mass media exposure, educational level of women, wealth index, place of residence and geographical region has a significant role in determining sex preference. ConclusionThe results suggest that the national and state level policies and programmes need to be relooked for accelerating the progress of reducing son preference in India. Government should focus on the vulnerable groups identified in the study and also should emphasise the awareness programmes to combat declining child sex ratio for achieving the sustainable development goals of gender equality in India.

“Daughter-Only” Families in Selected High and Low Son Preference States in India: A Comparative Analysis

The deep-rooted patriarchal norms and the culture of son preference in India played a central role for avoiding the birth of a girl child. This study attempts to understand the extent of acceptance of daughters in selected high and low son preference states of India by using data from District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS) 3 and 4. Understanding the characteristics of the couples who have stopped childbearing only with daughters provide insights about the prevailing norms on acceptance of daughters. The results revealed that, from DLHS 3 to 4, there is an increasing trend in the daughter preference in both high and low son preference states. The results of the study indicate that the acceptance of daughters is initially emerging among younger, educated, urban and richer couples. The gradual increase in acceptance of daughters reveals weakening of rigid patriarchal norms and son preference in the study states.

Sex composition and son preference in India and major states: Evidence from the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16)

The impact of prenatal preferences and family size on the sex ratio of children in patriarchal societies like India has been a major concern for demographers and policy makers. Parents continue to bear children until they achieve their desired number of children and the desired sex composition. There is abundant empirical evidence to show a close relationship between sex preference and fertility. This paper provides pragmatic evidence from India that son preference has pronounced effects on the sex composition of children ever born at the family/micro level. We used the National Family Health Survey-4 data consisting of 455,694 ever-married mothers, aged 15–49, for this study. By assuming that the child sex ratio is a binomial distribution for a Bernoulli random variable, we considered three dependent variables for this study are ideal number of songs, actual number of sons and desired for next child. Women who had attained the highest level of education had a 56% lower preference for sons than others. As far as, regional differences are concerned, women in the northern region preferred the boy child more than those in the southern and western regions.

Do spouses influence each other's stated son preference?

Purpose This paper aims to understand the motivations behind married men preferring sons and to quantify the association between a couple’s stated son preferences. Son preference is an endemic problem in India. With half a million female foetuses aborted each year, the root causes of son preference in India have been widely studied. Little is known, however, on how couples mutually decide on their desired child sex-ratio. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the third National Family and Health Survey, the authors apply three-stage least square and optimal general method of moment methods to demonstrate association. Robustness checks are performed on plausibly exogenous instrumental variables and selection issues in the marriage market. Findings The authors show that their spouse's son preference is by far the most significant factor associated with a person's own stated son preference. The association between spouse's stated son preference is observed only for couples being married for three to five years. It is postulated that this is the critical period when sex-selective abortion decisions are being made. Originality/value The focus of existing empirical studies is nearly always on the mother's son preference only. The hypothesis is that spouses mutually influence each other’s preferences and models estimating determinants of son preference should include preferences of both spouses. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to understand the motivations of married men towards preferring sons and quantify the association between spouse's stated son preference and respondent's stated son preference.

Son preference, security concerns and crime against women: Expanding the public health discourse in India.

The phenomenon of son preference in India and the declining number of girls due to such a mindset has been an area of concern. While the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act and the Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao scheme have been the mainstay of the government's initiative to counter this reproductive injustice, recognizing son preference and crime against women as public health concern opens up a new vista to counter this injustice. This study has identified that the public health system needs to engage with the following aspects to counter the problem: counseling services to women and men around fertility choices; access/availability to contraceptive choices; engaging men and boys in developing a response against violence; gender-sensitive training and capacity building; access to sexual and reproductive rights awareness amongst girls, women, boys, and men; and health insurance for senior citizens.

Expectations of Support from Daughters in India: The Role of Education, Employment, and Empowerment

Existing literature on son preference in India posits a strong perceived economic rationale for sons being more valuable to households than daughters. However, it is useful to examine whether women’s expectations about receiving support from their daughters are determined by their own life circumstances. In this paper, I use data from the India Human Development Survey – II, 2011-12 to examine the role of women’s education, employment, and empowerment as factors associated with whether women report that they expect in their old age to live with or receive financial support from a daughter compared to only from a son. Results from logistic regression show that women with higher education are more likely and employed women are less likely to expect co-residence with or receive financial support from a daughter. Women with higher bargaining power in terms of home ownership are more likely to expect co-residence with daughters, but not once state-fixed effects are taken into account.

Paying for Violence? Spousal Abuse and Son Preference in India

We find a puzzling correlation in the data on domestic violence and children’s outcomes in India. Using the 2005–2006 National Family and Health Survey, we see that girls in families experiencing spousal violence are less worse off than boys when only fathers report a son preference while the gender bias reverses when only mothers report having a son preference. To shed light on the puzzle in the data, we present a non-cooperative theoretical framework based in economic theories of domestic violence, whereby differing parental son preference and bargaining over investments in girl and boy children potentially explains the observed relationship.

The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India

Objective: We explore whether women’s paid employment is associated with reductions in women’s stated son preference in India and whether these results vary by employment sector (agriculture, manufacturing, services, professional-technical) and skill level (education and literacy). Methods: We conduct a logistic regression analysis of the relationship between women’s paid employment and women’s stated son preference among a sample of never-pregnant Indian women. We use the 2005 India National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Results: Women’s paid employment in the service and manufacturing sectors is associated with significant reductions in the stated son preference of low-skilled women (i.e., low education and literacy). However, this negative association goes away for women at higher skill levels. In fact, paid employment in manufacturing is associated with significantly higher stated son preference among university-educated women. However, women’s paid employment in agriculture and the professional-technical sectors is not significantly associated with women’s stated son preference. Finally, the association between women’s paid employment and stated son preference is significantly larger for women living in north India than for women living in south and east India. Conclusions: We hypothesize that significant negative associations between women’s paid employment and women’s stated son preference occur only in cases where paid employment changes the economic status of women within the family. Contribution: Our analysis demonstrates that there are important linkages between women’s paid employment and stated son preference, and draws attention to how the context of employment (e.g., sector and skill level) is differentially associated with demographic outcomes.

Preference for Boys, Family Size, and Educational Attainment in India

Using data from nationally representative household surveys, we test whether Indian parents make trade-offs between the number of children and investments in education. To address the endogeneity due to the joint determination of quantity and quality of children, we instrument family size with the gender of the first child, which is plausibly random. Given a strong son preference in India, parents tend to have more children if the firstborn is a girl. Our instrumental variable results show that children from larger families have lower educational attainment and are less likely to be enrolled in school, with larger effects for rural, poorer, and low-caste families as well as for families with illiterate mothers.

The gender pay gap and son preference: evidence from India

This study explores the role of the gender pay gap in explaining the downward trend in son preference in India. This hypothesis is based on the underlying theory that parents allocate more resources to male children because the expected returns are higher for male relative to female children. However, rising relative earnings of women in India may increase the expected returns to investing in girls, and ultimately help to lower son preference in general. Using data from the 2005–2006 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) and the 2004 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-International (IPUMS-International), we construct a gender pay gap measure from exogenous labor demand to identify the effect on reported son preference among men and women. Regression results confirm that reducing the gender pay gap helps lower son preference among men and women.

Can concern for the long-term care of older parents explain son preference at birth in India?

ABSTRACTThis study examines whether concern for the long-term care of older parents is the primary reason for son preference in India. Controlling for important socioeconomic factors that are believed to affect son preference, we find that concern for long-term care is the principal cause of son preference in India. Sons serve as the primary caregivers to elderly parents, while daughters are mostly engaged in caring for parents-in-law. This trend is more acute in rural than in urban areas. Our study also finds a strong implication of the filial relationship for the long-term care of elderly parents.

Role of Globalisation in Women’s Health: A Key Issue

The health of Indian women is intrinsically linked to their status in society. Research on women’s status has found that the contributions Indian women make to families often are overlooked, and instead they are viewed as economic burdens. There is a strong son preference in India, as sons are expected to care for parents as they age. This son preference, along with high dowry costs for daughters, sometimes results in the mistreatment of daughters. Further, Indian women have low levels of both education and formal labor force participation. They typically have little autonomy, living under the control of first their fathers, then their husbands, and finally their son. All of these factors exert a negative impact on the health status of Indian women. Poor health has repercussions not only for women but also their families. Women in poor health are more likely to give birth to low weight infants. They also are less likely to be able to provide food and adequate care for their children. Finally, a woman’s health affects the household economic well-being, as a woman in poor health will be less productive in the labor force. While women in India face many serious health concerns, this profile focuses on only five key issues: reproductive health, violence against women, nutritional status, unequal treatment of girls and boys, and HIV/AIDS. Because of the wide variation in cultures, religions, and levels of development among India’s 25 states and 7 union territories, it is not surprising that women’s health also varies greatly from state to state. To give a more detailed picture, data for the major states will be presented whenever possible. The discrimination against the girl child is systematic and pervasive enough to manifest in many demographic measures for the country. For the country as a whole as well as its rural areas, the infant mortality rate is higher for females in comparison to that for males. Usually, though not exclusively, it is in the northern and western states that the female infant mortality rates are higher, a difference of ten points between the two sexes specific rates not being uncommon.

The Price of Gold: Dowry and Death in India

Dowry is often adduced as an explanation of son preference in India, but there is little evidence that motivates son-preferring behaviours. On the premise that gold is an integral part of dowry, we use variation in gold prices to investigate this. First, we exploit a sharp unexpected rise in the price of gold in 1980 and, using a difference-in-discontinuities design, find that the gold price hike is mirrored in an increase in girl relative to boy mortality in the neonatal and infant period. We also find that surviving girls are shorter. Second, using monthly time series data for 35 years, we again find that cyclical variation in gold prices is reflected in excess girl mortality and, since the introduction of prenatal sex determination technology, in the sex ratio at birth. This constitutes the first evidence that costs lead parents to eliminate foetal and newborn girls, and on a scale much larger than dowry deaths amongst married women which have been the subject of public attention.

Gender‐Biased Breastfeeding in Egypt: Examining the Fertility Preference Hypotheses of Jayachandran and Kuziemko (2011)

SummaryJayachandran and Kuziemko (Why do mothers breastfeed girls less than boys? Evidence and implications for child health in India. Quarterly Journal of Economics 2011; 126(3): 1485–1538) develop and empirically validate a theory showing son preference in India generates ‘passive’ parental bias against girls in breastfeeding due to gender‐differentiated birth spacing and fertility stopping. I scientifically replicate their empirical exercises to test the validity of the theory in Egypt, where there is also high prevailing son preference, but little research on its implications for child health investments. I additionally examine whether using the exclusive breastfeeding rate as an alternative outcome yields supportive evidence for the theory. I find the theory is strongly supported by empirical results from Egyptian data, bolstering its policy relevance for developing countries besides India. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Son Preference in India: Implications for Gender Development

:Using data from the census of India and the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), this paper analyzes trends in child sex ratios (0-6 years of age) and the increase in son preference in India. Latest census data (2011) show that the child sex ratios (females per 1,000 males) have decreased compared to data from the last five decades. Increasing son preference and neglect of daughters is occurring in many states in India, despite the advances made in education, literacy, healthcare, and income attainment. A skewed sex ratio and shortage of girls is detrimental to the health and welfare of women, as well as to the human development of India. Policymakers need to formulate appropriate policies, coupled with strict enforcement laws, in order to contain this grave trend in son preference and the infanticide, neglect, and devaluation of women in India.

Is Son Preference in India a Phenomenon among Hindus Alone? Analyzing Ideal Preferences and Fertility Behaviors

While research on son preference in India and on fertility differentials between religious groups is well-known, we only have indirect estimates of differences in son preference between religious groups. This paper examines data from two waves of the National Family and Health Survey, 1998-99 and 2005-06 to determine to what extent son preference differs between Hindus and Muslims, the two largest religious groups in India. Using women’s self-reported ideal sex composition of children and actual fertility behaviors, this study finds that Muslims have lower son preference compared to Hindus. We find strong evidence for sex selection among Hindus during births when the family previously has only daughters. This however does not occur among Muslims. The research suggests that religious identity, beliefs and practices especially among the Hindus may be a key cultural explanation for the persistence of son preference in India.

Determinants of Stated Son Preference in India: Are Men and Women Different?

New sex-selective abortion technologies allow parents-to-be to implement their preference for sons more easily than in the past. With an unmet demand for sons in India, a better understanding of what leads respondents to prefer sons is important from a policy perspective. Stated son preference has seldom been studied in the past. Using data from NFHS3, I conclude that never-married women's preference for sons is strongly influenced by the financial worth of children, whereas never-married men's preference for sons is mainly influenced by non-financial reasons, including their perception of women, their religion and their caste.