Sex ratio and fertility transition: a decomposition analysis

The decreasing child female to male ratio has been one of the important concerns in India’s demography in recent times. A general public concern of late is the apparent association of child female to male ratio and fertility decline. Different states of India are in various stages of fertility transition. It will be worthwhile to identify the states, which contribute to the decline in child sex ratio at all India level. A decomposition exercise is attempted in this study. The decomposition shows that change in the female-male ratio is mainly guided by the “total effect of changes in the female-male ratio” for both the age-groups (0-4 and 10-14). States with initial low female-male ratios and faster decline in population growth have contributed to all India female to male decline to some extent. Now the question arises, why the states which have less discrimination against female children, and also have insignificant use of newer technology to identify sex at fetal stage have witnesses a decline in the FMR? It may happen that once the fertility transition will be over female to male ratios will stabilize. In case of states which are identified as disturbing, stringent measures to curb the sex selective abortions are required.