Suddhasil Siddhanta - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Suddhasil Siddhanta

This paper aims to explore the regional differences in gender wage gap across the various municip... more This paper aims to explore the regional differences in gender wage gap across the various municipalities in Denmark using data from the revised Statistics Denmark databank for the time period 2008-2014. The determinants used to measure this wage gap include educational attainment of males and females, average food consumption expenditure of households, average expenditure incurred on entertainment and recreational activities and the number of persons employed, both males and females across manufacturing and services sector. The average consumption expenditure of households highlights the stark difference in the standard of living between the two genders. Keeping the educational attainment constant, we observe a high concentration of males among the highly paid salaried workers which widens the gender wage gap in the significantly, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Artha Vijnana: Journal of The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, 2013

Land policies for inclusive growth are important for their impact on sustainable development. How... more Land policies for inclusive growth are important for their impact on sustainable development. However, India does not have land policies benefiting the poorer sections of the society which results in exclusionary development with limited scope for economic improvement for the marginalized groups. Land reforms have not been very successful across the country. The challenges that lie ahead are by no means small. Unfortunately, the land records are inadequate and there exists lack of uniformity in maintaining them.

Perceptive economists have repeatedly drawn policy makers' attention to the pattern of distri... more Perceptive economists have repeatedly drawn policy makers' attention to the pattern of distributional inequality and its close connection with poverty in rural India. But, surprisingly, analysis of relational inequality and its association with poverty has greatly been ignored in economic literature. ones location within the network of social affiliations substantially affects one's access to resources, poverty has not been forthcoming. Such evidence is available nevertheless, the quinquennial surveys of household consumer expenditure from the NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation). These surveys provide data on the differences in level of c monthly p from the 55 the backward Going beyond this straightforward observation, this study develops ways to measure the degree of association between social with 'high level of degree of association between group inequality & po mapped out next, followed by examining the nature of relative group deprivation with the help of nat...

Abstract: Despite impressive fertility decline and drastic increase in gender ratio (male to fema... more Abstract: Despite impressive fertility decline and drastic increase in gender ratio (male to female), little attention has been given to understand the relationship between these two aspects of reproductive behavior in India. Using unit level data from three waves of Demographic Health Survey (National Family Health Survey), the present study tries to unfold the relationship between fertility pattern and birth masculinity. The analysis reveals that son preference is embedded in Indian family system as efficient family limitation behavior, though its manifestation varies with stages of fertility transition as well as its regional variations. Key words: birth masculinity, fertility, parity progression ratio, sex ratio at birth, latent variable model, bivariate LISA, etc. JEL Classification: J13, J16, C12, C31, Z13, etc.

Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbin... more Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbing patterns with relatively fewer numbers of females compared to males. The magnitude of juvenile masculinity has increased since 1980s with no sign of reverse. The time trend of juvenile sex ratio brings out demographic transition type ‘sex ratio transition’ in Indian population. Using data from the last hundred years, the paper tries to figure out the pattern of sex ratio transition at all India as well as at the state level. Spatial pattern of juvenile sex ratio have been judged and contemporary increase in masculinity have been highlighted. Despite the common wisdom that juvenile sex ratio in India is rising since the last century, the present paper indicates that juvenile masculinity is a long-standing problem of India that gets momentum during the recent period due to demographic as well as socio-economic forces. Key Words: Juvenile Sex Ratio, India, Historical Trend, Regional Dispa...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

Despite the century old concern and debate child sex ratio patterns have shown an alarming increa... more Despite the century old concern and debate child sex ratio patterns have shown an alarming increase over the last two decades, more so during 1991 to 2001. The pattern of increase in child sex ratio though erratic up to the first half of the last century, shows consistent rise at least since 1961. As these groups are the 'feeder source' of adult population in future, such trend if unchecked, 'will continue to haunt the society in decades to come' until and unless corrective measures are taken. Growing child masculinity in contemporary India and its regional penetration forced the policy makers and demographers to recognize the reality of human interferences behind the recent increase in child sex ratios. Out of the different types of interferences, most talked about is the 'sex selective abortion' that gained currency during 1980s and more so in the 90s. However the practice of sex selective abortion of unwanted foetus is still more pronounced in the north and north western 1 part of the country more so in some relatively prosperous areas or among the prosperous households. Employing spatial interpolation technique (say, kriging), the present paper tries to analyze the geographical structure of child sex ratio and its changing pattern over time. The analysis indicates, far from being random, the child sex ratios in India seem to be continuous over space showing robust clustering of high masculinity in child population on one hand and its systematic (spatial) increase on the other. The spread as well as intensity of growing masculinity in child population clearly endorses that from a regional perspective the problem regarding excessive maleness in the population is rapidly being surfaced as a national problem needs to tackle with greater resources. Such spatial patterning of child sex ratios clearly hints that diffusion of sex selection might be well entrenched in Indian population with sufficient degree of regional diversity. The study endorses the importance of contextual policy and advocacy measures to arrest the increasing trend of masculinity as it will affect population dynamics not only in the regional or national context but also in the broader spectrum of international arena. This should be a matter of concern for policy makers, researchers and activists alike.

Air pollution causes some of the most serious long-term impacts on human health. Unlike other hea... more Air pollution causes some of the most serious long-term impacts on human health. Unlike other health problems, the diseases caused by air-pollution are likely to affect everyone exposed to polluted air. This paper makes an attempt to ascertain the economic burden of diseases related to air-pollution in urban areas. [GIDR Working Paper No.34].

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017

Mapping is a powerful tool for policy analysis. Mapping unveils the hidden trends of the attribut... more Mapping is a powerful tool for policy analysis. Mapping unveils the hidden trends of the attributes that are not readily apparent in traditional statistical analysis. However, the treatment of spatial effect and the visualization of spatial dependence are rather cursory and often limited to visual inspection of the data. The present paper attempts to go beyond this state of affairs by identifying statistically significant clusters of nuances at different levels, their strength and movement over space with time. Girl child deficit in India is one such issue that attracts national as well as international attention. Existing literature has already point out the high spatial dependence of this issue. But the spatial presentation of such matter often limited to arbitrary classifications of the data and the maps are not always policy sensitive. Using scan statistics and exploiting Indian district level database on child sex ratios, the study tries to detect the geographical clusters of female deficit and its statistical inference on one hand and also tries to quantify its strength over India’s landscape, on the other. In doing so, the study proposes a newer extension of the existing toolbox of spatial autocorrelation and offers a new measure of semi-local autocorrelation. The paper ends up with multi layered maps strength of which does not depend on the visual capacity of the researchers rather rests on its own statistical strength. It is hoped that the methodological advancement proposed in this paper may be found useful for policy analysis. The main objective of this paper is, therefore, to illustrate a newer methodology for making the mapping analysis policy sensitive.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009

Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbin... more Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbing patterns with relatively fewer numbers of females compared to males. The magnitude of juvenile masculinity has increased since 1980s with no sign of reverse. The time trend of juvenile sex ratio brings out demographic transition type 'sex ratio transition' in Indian population. Using data from the last hundred years, the paper tries to figure out the pattern of sex ratio transition at all India as well as at the state level. Spatial pattern of juvenile sex ratio have been judged and contemporary increase in masculinity have been highlighted. Despite the common wisdom that juvenile sex ratio in India is rising since the last century, the present paper indicates that juvenile masculinity is a long-standing problem of India that gets momentum during the recent period due to demographic as well as socioeconomic forces.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

Fertility differentials among the Hindus and the Muslims in India are a matter of concern, which ... more Fertility differentials among the Hindus and the Muslims in India are a matter of concern, which attracts scholars of different disciplines not only in India, but also outside as well. But surprisingly systematic analysis of fertility pattern among these religion sub groups has not been forthcoming. The ‘Census 2001’, for the first time, published different demographic information on the basis of religion sub-groups. Using that gold mine data set, this paper describes the spatial pattern of Child Women Ratio (CWR) among Hindus and Muslims with the help of statistical as well as GIS mapping technique. Significant CWR variations have been observed with definite regional pattern. Considering female literacy and religion identity as the two important factors that can affect Child Women Ratio, this paper shows differential impacts of the explanatory variables in describing Child Women Ratio variations. Partial regression analysis and decomposition of variance of Child Women Ratio do clearly indicate that the female literacy contributes more in explaining Child Women Ratio variations among these communities. Unpacking the Child Women Ratio pattern at the region and also at the state level however indicates different degree of influence of female literacy in explaining Child Women Ratio variations. Two major patterns of districts are forthcoming. On the one hand there are districts where female literacy is substantially predominant and on the other, there are districts where religion identity picks up a major part of the explanation provided by the female literacy in explaining Child Women Ratio variations. Furthermore it shows the relative effectiveness of the ‘religion difference in female literacy’ in explaining the ‘religion difference in Child Women Ratios’. District disaggregated maps clearly indicate greater efficiency of female literacy in explaining CWR variations among the Muslims. The study concludes by advocating further improvement in female literacy in Indian districts with a clear focus on improving the education status of Muslim females. A convergent action plan has been proposed by incorporating the line departments along with agencies working on reproductive health issues.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

The ratio of girls to boys (ie. Sex ratios) in India reveals excess girl child deficit in compari... more The ratio of girls to boys (ie. Sex ratios) in India reveals excess girl child deficit in comparison with developed and many other developing countries. Masculinisation in the juvenile sex ratio (i.e. f/m ratios) in Indian population further gets momentum during the last decade (Agnihotri 2001, 2002) in the wake of prosperity (Siddhanta et all 2003). Such lowering in f/m ratios cannot be explained away by the popular escape hatches of yester days, like-migration, under counting and biological factors, rather indicate the presence of human factors, which point out the change in behavioral pattern in the presence of socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Sex ratio patterns in the Indian population show considerable variations by regions, religions, prosperity classes, social groups e.g. scheduled castes and tribes, location i.e. urban or rural and even by age groups. While some of these variations have been given adequate attention in the received literature e.g. the north south divide, many others e.g. variations in the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes have not. It is important however, to study these patterns so as to understand the nature and evolution of the gender bias that may exist among these groups. The analysis below looks at the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes in the country as revealed by the population census data for 2001 and the previous census. Traditionally, the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes have been presumed to be more balanced than among the overall population, but the facts even from the 1991 census reveal otherwise. In fact in certain pockets where sex ratios among the overall populations have been masculine, the f/m ratio (FMR) figures among the scheduled castes are also alarmingly low. A comparison of the data from the 1991 and 2001 census shows a disturbing trend of spread of low female to male sex ratio in the child population among the scheduled castes to newer regions and intensification of such masculinity in the existing pockets. What is even more worrying is this emergence of 'daughter dislike' in pockets hitherto assumed to be free from such biases. This should be a matter of serious concern to policy planners, researchers and activists alike.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

Population data from Census-2011 at district level, show an alarming decline in the female to mal... more Population data from Census-2011 at district level, show an alarming decline in the female to male (f/m) ratios in the child population (0-6 years). The decline is considerably higher in the urban segments of the population than in the rural segments. Besides, it is particularly sharp in some of the prosperous states of northwestern India. However, these ratios have shown a similar decline in some parts of Maharashtra, a front-ranking prosperous state in the country. Here too, the decline has been high in urban segments, but many rural areas have also shown a disturbing decline. The deterioration in the f/m ratios has been sharp in certain spatial clusters. Mapping helps us locate the 'epicenter' of such clusters in the urban and in rural areas.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

Average Gender Gap in Literacy Rate (rural) is 21 percentage points. 9 Social Scientists like Dys... more Average Gender Gap in Literacy Rate (rural) is 21 percentage points. 9 Social Scientists like Dyson, Moore, Miller, Agnihotri argued that the problem of gender discrimination is confined within the North Western part of the country; a trend that has been attributed to the preponderance of regressive culture in the North Western region.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

Between 1991 and 2001, Gujarat has registered one of the steepest declines in the proportion of f... more Between 1991 and 2001, Gujarat has registered one of the steepest declines in the proportion of female to male children in the 0-6 year age group. The extent of decline revealed in the provisional figures of the Census 2001, is serious in the rural areas and alarming in the urban. Further, the NSSO data (43rd, 50th and 55th rounds) show that the prosperous segments of the society, both rural and the urban, show a disproportionately high deficit of daughters. In spatial terms, one can identify the emergence of certain ‘epi-centres’ of female deficit. These patterns are clearly a result of large-scale elimination of female fetus through sex selection techniques. Moreover, these raise serious questions about the model of ‘development’ that is being pursued in the state since prosperity and urbanisation do not appear to be improving the survival chances of girl children in the state; in fact these are showing an adverse impact. This should be a matter of deep concern to development planners, researchers and activists alike.

Economic and political weekly

This paper aims to explore the regional differences in gender wage gap across the various municip... more This paper aims to explore the regional differences in gender wage gap across the various municipalities in Denmark using data from the revised Statistics Denmark databank for the time period 2008-2014. The determinants used to measure this wage gap include educational attainment of males and females, average food consumption expenditure of households, average expenditure incurred on entertainment and recreational activities and the number of persons employed, both males and females across manufacturing and services sector. The average consumption expenditure of households highlights the stark difference in the standard of living between the two genders. Keeping the educational attainment constant, we observe a high concentration of males among the highly paid salaried workers which widens the gender wage gap in the significantly, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Artha Vijnana: Journal of The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, 2013

Land policies for inclusive growth are important for their impact on sustainable development. How... more Land policies for inclusive growth are important for their impact on sustainable development. However, India does not have land policies benefiting the poorer sections of the society which results in exclusionary development with limited scope for economic improvement for the marginalized groups. Land reforms have not been very successful across the country. The challenges that lie ahead are by no means small. Unfortunately, the land records are inadequate and there exists lack of uniformity in maintaining them.

Perceptive economists have repeatedly drawn policy makers' attention to the pattern of distri... more Perceptive economists have repeatedly drawn policy makers' attention to the pattern of distributional inequality and its close connection with poverty in rural India. But, surprisingly, analysis of relational inequality and its association with poverty has greatly been ignored in economic literature. ones location within the network of social affiliations substantially affects one's access to resources, poverty has not been forthcoming. Such evidence is available nevertheless, the quinquennial surveys of household consumer expenditure from the NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation). These surveys provide data on the differences in level of c monthly p from the 55 the backward Going beyond this straightforward observation, this study develops ways to measure the degree of association between social with 'high level of degree of association between group inequality & po mapped out next, followed by examining the nature of relative group deprivation with the help of nat...

Abstract: Despite impressive fertility decline and drastic increase in gender ratio (male to fema... more Abstract: Despite impressive fertility decline and drastic increase in gender ratio (male to female), little attention has been given to understand the relationship between these two aspects of reproductive behavior in India. Using unit level data from three waves of Demographic Health Survey (National Family Health Survey), the present study tries to unfold the relationship between fertility pattern and birth masculinity. The analysis reveals that son preference is embedded in Indian family system as efficient family limitation behavior, though its manifestation varies with stages of fertility transition as well as its regional variations. Key words: birth masculinity, fertility, parity progression ratio, sex ratio at birth, latent variable model, bivariate LISA, etc. JEL Classification: J13, J16, C12, C31, Z13, etc.

Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbin... more Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbing patterns with relatively fewer numbers of females compared to males. The magnitude of juvenile masculinity has increased since 1980s with no sign of reverse. The time trend of juvenile sex ratio brings out demographic transition type ‘sex ratio transition’ in Indian population. Using data from the last hundred years, the paper tries to figure out the pattern of sex ratio transition at all India as well as at the state level. Spatial pattern of juvenile sex ratio have been judged and contemporary increase in masculinity have been highlighted. Despite the common wisdom that juvenile sex ratio in India is rising since the last century, the present paper indicates that juvenile masculinity is a long-standing problem of India that gets momentum during the recent period due to demographic as well as socio-economic forces. Key Words: Juvenile Sex Ratio, India, Historical Trend, Regional Dispa...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

Despite the century old concern and debate child sex ratio patterns have shown an alarming increa... more Despite the century old concern and debate child sex ratio patterns have shown an alarming increase over the last two decades, more so during 1991 to 2001. The pattern of increase in child sex ratio though erratic up to the first half of the last century, shows consistent rise at least since 1961. As these groups are the 'feeder source' of adult population in future, such trend if unchecked, 'will continue to haunt the society in decades to come' until and unless corrective measures are taken. Growing child masculinity in contemporary India and its regional penetration forced the policy makers and demographers to recognize the reality of human interferences behind the recent increase in child sex ratios. Out of the different types of interferences, most talked about is the 'sex selective abortion' that gained currency during 1980s and more so in the 90s. However the practice of sex selective abortion of unwanted foetus is still more pronounced in the north and north western 1 part of the country more so in some relatively prosperous areas or among the prosperous households. Employing spatial interpolation technique (say, kriging), the present paper tries to analyze the geographical structure of child sex ratio and its changing pattern over time. The analysis indicates, far from being random, the child sex ratios in India seem to be continuous over space showing robust clustering of high masculinity in child population on one hand and its systematic (spatial) increase on the other. The spread as well as intensity of growing masculinity in child population clearly endorses that from a regional perspective the problem regarding excessive maleness in the population is rapidly being surfaced as a national problem needs to tackle with greater resources. Such spatial patterning of child sex ratios clearly hints that diffusion of sex selection might be well entrenched in Indian population with sufficient degree of regional diversity. The study endorses the importance of contextual policy and advocacy measures to arrest the increasing trend of masculinity as it will affect population dynamics not only in the regional or national context but also in the broader spectrum of international arena. This should be a matter of concern for policy makers, researchers and activists alike.

Air pollution causes some of the most serious long-term impacts on human health. Unlike other hea... more Air pollution causes some of the most serious long-term impacts on human health. Unlike other health problems, the diseases caused by air-pollution are likely to affect everyone exposed to polluted air. This paper makes an attempt to ascertain the economic burden of diseases related to air-pollution in urban areas. [GIDR Working Paper No.34].

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017

Mapping is a powerful tool for policy analysis. Mapping unveils the hidden trends of the attribut... more Mapping is a powerful tool for policy analysis. Mapping unveils the hidden trends of the attributes that are not readily apparent in traditional statistical analysis. However, the treatment of spatial effect and the visualization of spatial dependence are rather cursory and often limited to visual inspection of the data. The present paper attempts to go beyond this state of affairs by identifying statistically significant clusters of nuances at different levels, their strength and movement over space with time. Girl child deficit in India is one such issue that attracts national as well as international attention. Existing literature has already point out the high spatial dependence of this issue. But the spatial presentation of such matter often limited to arbitrary classifications of the data and the maps are not always policy sensitive. Using scan statistics and exploiting Indian district level database on child sex ratios, the study tries to detect the geographical clusters of female deficit and its statistical inference on one hand and also tries to quantify its strength over India’s landscape, on the other. In doing so, the study proposes a newer extension of the existing toolbox of spatial autocorrelation and offers a new measure of semi-local autocorrelation. The paper ends up with multi layered maps strength of which does not depend on the visual capacity of the researchers rather rests on its own statistical strength. It is hoped that the methodological advancement proposed in this paper may be found useful for policy analysis. The main objective of this paper is, therefore, to illustrate a newer methodology for making the mapping analysis policy sensitive.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009

Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbin... more Since the beginning of the last century, sex ratio (male to female) in India is showing disturbing patterns with relatively fewer numbers of females compared to males. The magnitude of juvenile masculinity has increased since 1980s with no sign of reverse. The time trend of juvenile sex ratio brings out demographic transition type 'sex ratio transition' in Indian population. Using data from the last hundred years, the paper tries to figure out the pattern of sex ratio transition at all India as well as at the state level. Spatial pattern of juvenile sex ratio have been judged and contemporary increase in masculinity have been highlighted. Despite the common wisdom that juvenile sex ratio in India is rising since the last century, the present paper indicates that juvenile masculinity is a long-standing problem of India that gets momentum during the recent period due to demographic as well as socioeconomic forces.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

Fertility differentials among the Hindus and the Muslims in India are a matter of concern, which ... more Fertility differentials among the Hindus and the Muslims in India are a matter of concern, which attracts scholars of different disciplines not only in India, but also outside as well. But surprisingly systematic analysis of fertility pattern among these religion sub groups has not been forthcoming. The ‘Census 2001’, for the first time, published different demographic information on the basis of religion sub-groups. Using that gold mine data set, this paper describes the spatial pattern of Child Women Ratio (CWR) among Hindus and Muslims with the help of statistical as well as GIS mapping technique. Significant CWR variations have been observed with definite regional pattern. Considering female literacy and religion identity as the two important factors that can affect Child Women Ratio, this paper shows differential impacts of the explanatory variables in describing Child Women Ratio variations. Partial regression analysis and decomposition of variance of Child Women Ratio do clearly indicate that the female literacy contributes more in explaining Child Women Ratio variations among these communities. Unpacking the Child Women Ratio pattern at the region and also at the state level however indicates different degree of influence of female literacy in explaining Child Women Ratio variations. Two major patterns of districts are forthcoming. On the one hand there are districts where female literacy is substantially predominant and on the other, there are districts where religion identity picks up a major part of the explanation provided by the female literacy in explaining Child Women Ratio variations. Furthermore it shows the relative effectiveness of the ‘religion difference in female literacy’ in explaining the ‘religion difference in Child Women Ratios’. District disaggregated maps clearly indicate greater efficiency of female literacy in explaining CWR variations among the Muslims. The study concludes by advocating further improvement in female literacy in Indian districts with a clear focus on improving the education status of Muslim females. A convergent action plan has been proposed by incorporating the line departments along with agencies working on reproductive health issues.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

The ratio of girls to boys (ie. Sex ratios) in India reveals excess girl child deficit in compari... more The ratio of girls to boys (ie. Sex ratios) in India reveals excess girl child deficit in comparison with developed and many other developing countries. Masculinisation in the juvenile sex ratio (i.e. f/m ratios) in Indian population further gets momentum during the last decade (Agnihotri 2001, 2002) in the wake of prosperity (Siddhanta et all 2003). Such lowering in f/m ratios cannot be explained away by the popular escape hatches of yester days, like-migration, under counting and biological factors, rather indicate the presence of human factors, which point out the change in behavioral pattern in the presence of socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Sex ratio patterns in the Indian population show considerable variations by regions, religions, prosperity classes, social groups e.g. scheduled castes and tribes, location i.e. urban or rural and even by age groups. While some of these variations have been given adequate attention in the received literature e.g. the north south divide, many others e.g. variations in the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes have not. It is important however, to study these patterns so as to understand the nature and evolution of the gender bias that may exist among these groups. The analysis below looks at the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes in the country as revealed by the population census data for 2001 and the previous census. Traditionally, the sex ratio patterns among the scheduled castes have been presumed to be more balanced than among the overall population, but the facts even from the 1991 census reveal otherwise. In fact in certain pockets where sex ratios among the overall populations have been masculine, the f/m ratio (FMR) figures among the scheduled castes are also alarmingly low. A comparison of the data from the 1991 and 2001 census shows a disturbing trend of spread of low female to male sex ratio in the child population among the scheduled castes to newer regions and intensification of such masculinity in the existing pockets. What is even more worrying is this emergence of 'daughter dislike' in pockets hitherto assumed to be free from such biases. This should be a matter of serious concern to policy planners, researchers and activists alike.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

Population data from Census-2011 at district level, show an alarming decline in the female to mal... more Population data from Census-2011 at district level, show an alarming decline in the female to male (f/m) ratios in the child population (0-6 years). The decline is considerably higher in the urban segments of the population than in the rural segments. Besides, it is particularly sharp in some of the prosperous states of northwestern India. However, these ratios have shown a similar decline in some parts of Maharashtra, a front-ranking prosperous state in the country. Here too, the decline has been high in urban segments, but many rural areas have also shown a disturbing decline. The deterioration in the f/m ratios has been sharp in certain spatial clusters. Mapping helps us locate the 'epicenter' of such clusters in the urban and in rural areas.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

Average Gender Gap in Literacy Rate (rural) is 21 percentage points. 9 Social Scientists like Dys... more Average Gender Gap in Literacy Rate (rural) is 21 percentage points. 9 Social Scientists like Dyson, Moore, Miller, Agnihotri argued that the problem of gender discrimination is confined within the North Western part of the country; a trend that has been attributed to the preponderance of regressive culture in the North Western region.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

Between 1991 and 2001, Gujarat has registered one of the steepest declines in the proportion of f... more Between 1991 and 2001, Gujarat has registered one of the steepest declines in the proportion of female to male children in the 0-6 year age group. The extent of decline revealed in the provisional figures of the Census 2001, is serious in the rural areas and alarming in the urban. Further, the NSSO data (43rd, 50th and 55th rounds) show that the prosperous segments of the society, both rural and the urban, show a disproportionately high deficit of daughters. In spatial terms, one can identify the emergence of certain ‘epi-centres’ of female deficit. These patterns are clearly a result of large-scale elimination of female fetus through sex selection techniques. Moreover, these raise serious questions about the model of ‘development’ that is being pursued in the state since prosperity and urbanisation do not appear to be improving the survival chances of girl children in the state; in fact these are showing an adverse impact. This should be a matter of deep concern to development planners, researchers and activists alike.

Economic and political weekly