Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I DEMOCRACY AND GLOBALIZATION
- PART II INDIA AND THE WORLD
- 11 Jakotra Village, Santalpur Taluka: Debating Globalization
- 12 India at Fifty and the Road Ahead
- 13 The Indian Economy: Take-off and Strategic Policy Issues
- 14 Has Poverty Declined in India?
- 15 Infant Mortality and the Anti-Female Bias
- 16 Labour Laws and the Role of Contracts
- 17 The Reform of Small Things
- 18 Is India's e-Economy for Real?
- 19 India's Trade Policy and the WTO
- 20 The Coming Textile Turmoil
- PART III SOCIAL NORMS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
- PART IV PERSONS
- PART V ON THE ROAD, AROUND THE WORLD
- Index
15 - Infant Mortality and the Anti-Female Bias
from PART II - INDIA AND THE WORLD
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I DEMOCRACY AND GLOBALIZATION
- PART II INDIA AND THE WORLD
- 11 Jakotra Village, Santalpur Taluka: Debating Globalization
- 12 India at Fifty and the Road Ahead
- 13 The Indian Economy: Take-off and Strategic Policy Issues
- 14 Has Poverty Declined in India?
- 15 Infant Mortality and the Anti-Female Bias
- 16 Labour Laws and the Role of Contracts
- 17 The Reform of Small Things
- 18 Is India's e-Economy for Real?
- 19 India's Trade Policy and the WTO
- 20 The Coming Textile Turmoil
- PART III SOCIAL NORMS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
- PART IV PERSONS
- PART V ON THE ROAD, AROUND THE WORLD
- Index
Summary
Much has been written about the bias against the girl child in India. A cursory glance at the data can be telling. In 1998, of every 1000 girls born in India, 77.2 would die between the ages of one month and five years; whereas for boys the figure was 59.9. This ratio of 1.3 to 1 seems large; but in itself a ratio means very little.
It is too large or too small only when compared against some standard. On 14 May 2002, in Philadelphia, President George Bush is supposed to have remarked (according to a list of ‘Bushisms’ published in Slate.com): ‘For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America.’
One reason why this observation is ambiguous is that it is not clear whether the speaker wishes to emphasize the poor marksmanship of those doing the shooting or the high rate of fatality.
Is India's relatively high girl child mortality rate the symptom of a malaise? By all accounts, it is. Detailed studies, done under controlled circumstances and in developed countries, suggest that if there is no difference in the treatment between girls and boys, a girl is more likely to survive than a boy during the first month of her life. Then, from the age of one month to five years, girls and boys have equal survival chances.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Retreat of Democracy and Other Itinerant Essays on Globalization, Economics, and India , pp. 118 - 121Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010