FERTILITY DECLINE AND INCREASED MANIFESTATION OF SEX BIAS IN INDIA

The net effect of fertility decline on excess mortality of girls relat ive to that of boys in India is influenced by two countervailing force s: the reduction in the number of higher-parity births which reduces n et excess mortality, and the intensification of parity-specific discri mination, which increases it. Rising sex ratios of children between 19 81 and 1991 indicate that the net effect of these forces was an increa se in the excess mortality of girls during this period. An estimated o ne million or more were added to the excess deaths, through sex-select ive abortion or infanticide. For each of these deaths, an estimated fo ur excess deaths of girls took place after birth during 1981-91, bring ing the total excess mortality resulting from discrimination to almost five per cent of female live births. The pre-existing regional differ ences in sex bias persist, with the Northern States showing a greater increase in excess mortality, although the pace of fertility decline h as been more rapid in the South.