Revision summary
Differential sex ratio is a deficit of females, sharpest in child counts. Prosperity plus ultrasound plus patriliny produced it. Implications include bride import, trafficking, and gendered violence. Scarcity does not automatically empower women. PCPNDT and succession reform are the policy pair.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
A differential sex ratio means fewer females than males in a population, especially among children in prosperous Indian belts. It implies son preference made demographic, with marriage, violence, and trafficking as aftershocks.
Body
Pattern
- Child sex ratio decline is worse where ultrasound meets Seed and Earth kinship and dowry.
- PCPNDT exists because the difference is produced, not natural.
Implications
- Marriage squeeze, imported brides, and trafficking into low-ratio regions.
- Surplus young men and honour politics can thicken violence.
- Women’s bargaining inside the household may not rise; scarcity of wives can increase control.
Sociological reading
- This is patriarchy as a population fact, not only a family attitude. Human development without gender justice can still buy the test.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SP[Son preference technology] --> DSR[Differential sex ratio] DSR --> MS[Marriage squeeze] DSR --> TR[Trafficking violence]
Conclusion
Differential sex ratio is missing girls as a social structure. Implications run from marriage markets to crime. Law and property rights must travel together.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Bring out the impact of the declining significance of the agrarian economy.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q7(a)). View answer →
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Is a low ratio only a north Indian problem?
It is worst in some north-western prosperous tracts. It has spread with the test.
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Will the ratio self-correct?
Not reliably. Preference can persist even after numbers worsen.
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