Fertility decline and increased manifestation of sex bias in India

The net effect of fertility decline on excess mortality of girls relative to that of boys in India is influenced by two countervailing forces: the reduction in the number of higher-parity births which reduces net excess mortality, and the intensification of parity-specific discrimination, which increases it. Rising sex ratios of children between 1981 and 1991 indicate that the net effect of these forces was an increase in the excess mortality of girls during this period. An estimated one million or more were added to the excess deaths, through sex-selective abortion or infanticide. For each of these deaths, an estimated four excess deaths of girls took place after birth during 1981-91, bringing the total excess mortality resulting from discrimination to almost five per cent of female live births. The pre-existing regional differences in sex bias persist, with the Northern States showing a greater increase in excess mortality, although the pace of fertility decline has been more rapid in the South.