Demographers and social scientist point out many reasons for the decrease in the gender ratio, with less women and more men. The most important of them are reasons of health and the attitude of the society towards females.
Women have greater health problems than men because of conception and childbirth. In some cases, women die during delivery. The question whether this is the cause for the inequality in gender ratio has much relevance. In the past deaths during or after delivery were common. But with the progress in medical science, such deaths are reduced to a minimum. Maternal death rate has been seriously reduced because of nutritious food, education, awareness, improved medical facilities and transport and communication. So it would e difficult to support the argument that maternal deaths during delivery are a major cause for the unequal gender ratio.
The other reason is said to be the behaviour and attitude of the society to women.
In some societies, birth of females is considered a curse and a burden. In such societies, there are many female foeticides and female infanticides. During pregnancy, through scanning, it is determined whether the child is male or female. If the foetus is female, then abortion is done. This is female foeticide. Some times in some superstitious societies female children are killed (female infanticide) even after their births because of certain cultural and religious superstitions.
This points to a serious social issue.
There are evidence that even now this kind of heinous acts are done in India. Using technology like sonograms (ultra-sound echo) the gender of the child is determined before birth, and if it is proved to be female, abortion is done. In all the hospitals we see notices against the determination of child sex using this technology. But unscrupulous gynaecologists take bribes and let the parents know the sex of the unborn child.
