More women than men in India; NFHS survey

Ground Report | New Delhi: More women than men in India; The Government of India has released the fifth report of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS). According to the report, for the first time in India, women outnumber men. According to the survey, there are 1,020 women for every 1,000 men.

In India, more women than men are important in the sense that boys are given precedence over girls in the social and economic context. Girls are considered "Praya Dhan" and boys are considered "sticks of old age".

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More women than men in India

The new statistics reflect a shift in social trends. In a 2005 survey, the proportion of men and women was equal, that is, one thousand women for every one thousand men. However, according to the 2015 survey, the number of women decreased to 991 per thousand men. In 1990, when Nobel Prize-winning economist Amrita Sen coined the term "Missing Women", India had 927 females per 1,000 males. This is the first time that the gender ratio has increased in favor of women.

 These figures are based on a sample survey and will be verified only after the next national census. The ratio of men to women will remain the same.

The government November 24 released the factsheet on Key Indicators on Population, Reproductive and Child Health, Family Welfare, Nutrition and Others under Phase-II of 2019-21 NFHS-5 for India and 14 States and Union Territories for India and 14 States and Union Territories.

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The states and union territories surveyed in the second phase were Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The findings of NFHS-5 for 22 states and union territories were included in the first phase, which was released in December last year.

Previous NFHS Survey

A government report last year projected that India would overtake China as the world's most populous country around 2031 - nearly a decade after the UN forecast for 2022.

A notable exception is Kerala, a state with the highest ratio of females to males at 1,121 and NFHS-IV recording an improvement of over 1,049. However, the TFR in Kerala has increased from 1.6 to 1.8. The state has also registered a decline in the sex ratio of children born in the last five years. In 2015-16, there were 1,047 females per 1,000 males which has now come down to 951 per 1,000 males.

The third edition of the NFHS survey in 2005–06 showed a similar population ratio between males and females, with a ratio of 1000:1000. However, a decade later, in the fourth edition of the survey, the female population reached 927 females per 1000 males. In a healthy development on that, the latest and fifth edition of the NFHS survey showed that the tide had recently turned in favor of women.

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