How do you explain the statistics that show that the sex ratio in Tribes in India is more favourable to women than the sex ratio among Scheduled Castes?

Q: How do you explain the statistics that show that the sex ratio in Tribes in India is more favourable to women than the sex ratio among Scheduled Castes?

Answer

The sex ratio for the overall population is 940 females per 1000 males and that of Scheduled Tribes 990 females per thousand males. Sex Ratio (number of Females per 1000 Males) is an important population characteristic that highlights the social attention provided to women.

  • In the absence of any interference, there is always an excess of male mortality during infancy since the female fetus and the female infant is biologically stronger compared to her male counterpart.
  • This biological advantage wanes during the subsequent years of life due to the inequality faced by the girl child in access to food, nutrition, health-care and other life sustaining resources. As a reason there is an emergence of excess female child mortality based on behavioral as opposed to the biological reasons. The stronger the inequality, the larger is the excess female child mortality.
  • The sex ratio of tribes in India are more favourable because since time immemorial, tribals have never discriminated between a boy and a girl. They have Matriarchal society. Tribals do not go for sex determination and female foeticide whereas in schedule caste the discrimination is present.