Do countries with lower sex ratio have greater women status? Global and Indian context

This study is an attempt to add information to the larger debate of using the principle of ‘demand and supply’ as means to relate the subtleties of declining sex ratio and women status. This study assessed data of the sex ratio and gender inequality index of 142 countries and Indian case. In the global context, the results reveal that declining sex ratio does not necessarily lead to increase in demand for women. However, if countries are bifurcated by developed and developing, the results fosters contradictory findings: in developed countries skewed sex ratio does not show any association with women status but in developing countries, the women status is decreasing with increasing in male skewed sex ratio. In the India context, it takes the path of developing countries. The skewed sex ratio in India has strong positive association with lower women autonomy. Crime against women is on rise with the worsening trends in sex ratio at birth. Based on the empirical evidence, we hypothesis that the increasing skewed sex ratios or scarcity will increase the demand for women does not hold much truth in developed countries. In Contrast, in developing countries, especially like India, the women status decreases with increasing sex ratio.