For Mumbai,boys still the chosen ones

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No Improvement In Girl-To-Boy Ratio Over Past 5 Years; Census Unlikely To Paint Better

Going by the trend of recent years,the impending census could expose an ugly truth about Mumbai: the city has repeatedly snubbed the girl child. The previous census,of 2001,showed that Mumbai had 923 girls aged upto six years for every 1,000 boys in the same age group. Since then the ratio has shown no improvement.

In 2005,the number of girls per 1,000 boys dipped to 917, according to BMC statistics based on births registered. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the BMC figures remained at a dismal 920,921 and 918,respectively. The latest figures show that Mumbai had 919 girls born for every 1,000 male births in 2009. Mumbai lags behind the national average. The 2001 census showed 934 girls for every 1,000 boys in the country.

So, where are the missing girls? The question hurls one into a murky world where the educated and more affluent are suspected to be using contraceptives and technological advances to ensure male children,and poorer,relatively uneducated people are clinging to age-old attitudes,which include having males to be breadwinners and carry on the family name.

Ironically, the positive aspects of Mumbai, such as literacy and affluence,appear to be major reasons contributing to the skewed child sex ratio. With the more educated strata, there is a possibility of stopping rule behaviour a term that means a couple has decided to have only one child,and so would prefer a boy, said Dr Arokya Swamy,of the International Institute of Population Sciences. Also, low fertility rates should be taken into account. With most affluent, educated people marrying late and having a baby even later, the fertility rate for the higher economic strata is around 1.5, which means that around 50% of people in this group are able to have only one child, said Swamy.

Sonia Gill,of the All India Democratic Womens Association,said,With the overall cost of life going up, everybody wants to have a small family, preferably with a son. Amongst the higher economic classes, fathers want to pass on their businesses to sons rather than sons-in-law. According to Dr Rekha Daver, member of the state advisory committee on Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques, the more access people have to technology, the more the girl child is at risk.

Tribal or rural people do not know much about technology and contraception. So,even though the old culture of male child upholding the family name is more rampant among the uneducated, the literate are more techno-savvy and have more contraceptive options. They know that an abortion is possible if they want it and can pay for it, said Daver. City pockets that had the lowest ratios for girls in 2009 were wards known for their upmarket areas, while they also have a healthy mix of middle- and lower-middle residents and slums.

A (Colaba,Churchgate,Fort) had only 867 girl births per 1,000 boys. C (Marine Lines,Mumbadevi,Marine Drive) had just 854 girl births and GSouth (Worli,Dadar) had 871. Interestingly, no ward had more girls than boys. That statistic was last seen in 2006. The highest ratio for girls was in B (Masjid Bunder,JJ Road),which had 986 girls, and H-West (Bandra,Khar,Santa Cruz),which had 943.

A L Sharda, of Population First, an NGO, said, one would have to wait for teh census for a clearer picture. When the data is collected for births registered on a yearly basis,the statistics are only a rough indication. A proper analysis can be done only when the census collects data for the zero-to-six age group, she said.

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