Monica Das Gupta

Selective discrimination against female children in rural Punjab, India

Meeting: Workshop on Differential Female Mortality and Health Care in South Asia, Jan. 1987, Dhaka, BD

Dimensions of women’s autonomy and the influence on maternal health care utilization in a north indian city

The dimensions of women’s autonomy and their relationship to maternal health care utilization were investigated in a probability sample of 300 women in Varanasi, India. We examined the determinants of women’s autonomy in three areas: control over finances, decision-making power, and freedom of movement. After we control for age, education, household structure, and other factors, women with closer ties to natal kin were more likely to have greater autonomy in each of these three areas. Further analyses demonstrated that women with greater freedom of movement obtained higher levels of antenatal care and were more likely to use safe delivery care. The influence of women’s autonomy on the use of health care appears to be as important as other known determinants such as education.

Why is Son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? a cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea

Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in the countries studied here. We attribute this persistence to their similar family systems, which generate strong disincentives to raise daughters – whether or not their marriages require dowries – while valuing adult womens contributions to the household. Urbanisation, female education and employment can only slowly change these incentives without more direct efforts by the state and civil society to increase the flexibility of the kinship system such that daughters and sons can be perceived as being more equally valuable. Much can be done to accelerate this process through social movements, legislation and the mass media.

Fertility Decline and Increased Manifestation of Sex Bias in India

This study examines the relationship between fertility decline in India and the evidence of an increase in sex bias. Data were obtained from the 1981 and 1991 Registrar General of India and from Khanna re-study villages in the Punjab (moderate-fertility population) and in Kerala (low-fertility population) in 1991. Total fertility declined by 20% during 1981-91. The number of sons desired by women who were childless declined by only 7.4%. Among the Khanna sample reduced fertility led to a decline in excess mortality of women from 9% to zero when the sex bias was unchanged and fertility level varied. When fertility was kept constant at a low level and the sex bias varied excess mortality of women increased from zero to 25%. The findings suggest that changes in birth distribution by parity outweigh intensified sex bias at lower parities. The sex ratios of children during 1981-91 rose in all states including the south where the sex ratio has generally been more balanced. Data indicate that over a million additional girls aged 0-6 years were missing during 1981-91. Declining fertility led to a reduction in excess mortality of adult females. The sex ratios of age-specific deaths remained constant during 1979-81 and 1990-91. The author estimates how much the sex ratio of children can be attributed to sex-selective abortions. During 1981-91 about 4.2 million excess postnatal deaths occurred among girls or 4 excess postnatal deaths for each excess prenatal death among girls (1 million aborted female fetuses). This suggests that sex-selective abortion accounted for the missing girls. The sharpest rise in the sex ratio at birth with parity was in Punjab for 1990-91. The model of the relationship between the decline in total fertility in each major state with a change in the sex ratios of children during 1981-91 indicated that the sex ratio increased more in northern states with less fertility decline.

India's undernourished children: a call for reform and action

The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth. Drawing on qualitative studies and quantitative evidence from large household surveys, this book explores the dimensions of child undernutrition in India and examines the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, Indias main early child development intervention, in addressing it. Although levels of undernutrition in India declined modestly during the 1990s, the reductions lagged behind those achieved by other countries with similar economic growth. Nutritional inequalities across different states and socioeconomic and demographic groups remain large. Although the ICDS program appears to be well-designed and well-placed to address the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition in India, several problems exist that prevent it from reaching its potential. The book concludes with a discussion of a number of concrete actions that can be taken to bridge the gap between the policy intentions of ICDS and its actual implementation.

Gender bias in China, South Korea and India 1920-1990: effects of war, famine and fertility decline.

This article explores how historical events in the period 1920-90 have affected the extent of excess female child mortality in China South Korea and India and how they have shaped spousal availability marriage payments and the treatment of women. China and South Korea have much in common with respect to their kinship systems which allow for discrimination against female children. The extent to which this discrimination was manifested increased during periods of war famine and fertility decline. Data showed that there has been a sharp contrast between China and India in the history of spousal availability. While there has been a surplus of men in the marriage market in China India has conformed more to the typical pattern showing a shift from a surplus of men to a surplus of women with the appearance of steady declines in mortality. The reduction in the average age gap between spouses has at least partly been responding to the marriage squeeze as greater age parity reduces imbalances in spousal availability. During periods in which women have been in short supply the daily lives of the majority have been considerably improved because when confronted by such a shortage men may be inclined to be more careful not to lose their wives. At the same time in such periods a small proportion of women may be subject to new types of violence. Although the treatment of women improves when they are in shortage their autonomy can only be increased by significant changes in their role in the family and society.

Fertility and Son Preference in Korea

In Korea, total fertility declined from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1990, in spite of a strong preference for male offspring. This paper addresses the notion that son preference hinders fertility decline, and examines the effects of patriarchal relations and modernization on fertility using the 1991 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. It was found that women who have a son are less likely to have another child, and that women with a son who do progress to have another child, take longer to conceive the subsequent child. This pattern prevailed for women of parity one, two, and three, and became more pronounced with higher parity. A multivariate analysis showed that preference for male offspring, patriarchy, and modernization are all strong predictors of second, third, and fourth conceptions.

Lifeboat versus corporate ethic: social and demographic implications of stem and joint families

The author distinguishes the lifeboat ethic of Northern Europes stem family system from the corporate ethic of North Indias joint family system, which has much in common with that of China. She contrasts these family systems to show how norms of residence and inheritance: a) Profoundly influence our values and social constructs. b) Shape patterns of conflict and cooperation between people, thus influencing many basic aspects of social organization and behavior. c) Influence health outcomes by categorizing people according to whether their health is promoted or allowed to fail. d) Shape a wide range of other development outcomes, including migration, strategies of household resource management, ways of exploiting commercial opportunities, and the operation of civil society. The author develops a number of hypotheses about the nature of these relationships. Some of these are substantiated quantitatively, and others can be tested empirically.

Family systems, political systems, and Asia's'missing girls': the construction of son preference and its unraveling

Son preference is known to be found in certain types of cultures, that is patrilineal cultures. But what explains the fact that China, South Korea, and Northwest India manifest such extreme child sex ratios compared with other patrilineal societies? This paper argues that what makes these societies unique is that their pre-modern political and administrative systems used patrilineages to organize and administer their citizens. The interplay of culture, state, and political processes generated uniquely rigid patriliny and son preference. The paper also argues that the advent of the modern state in these settings has unraveled the underpinnings of the rigid patrilineal rules, and unleashed a variety of forces that reduce son preference. Firstly, the modern state has powerful tools for incorporating and managing its citizenry, rendering patrilineages a threat rather than an asset for the state. Secondly, the modern state has brought in political, social, and legal reforms aimed to challenge traditional social hierarchies, including the age and gender hierarchies of the kinship system. Thirdly, industrialization and urbanization have ushered in new modes of social organization, which reduce the hold of clans and lineages. Studies of the impact of the media suggest that states can accelerate the resultant decline in son preference, through media efforts to help parents perceive that daughters can now be as valuable as sons.

Why is son preference declining in South Korea ? the role of development and public policy, and the implications for China and India

For years, South Korea presented the puzzling phenomenon of steeply rising sex ratios at birth despite rapid development, including in womens education and formal employment. This paper shows that son preference decreased in response to development, but its manifestation continued until the mid-1990s due to improved sex-selection technology. The paper analyzes unusually rich survey data, and finds that the impact of development worked largely through triggering normative changes across the whole society - rather than just through changes in individuals as their socio-economic circumstances changed. The findings show that nearly three-quarters of the decline in son preference between 1991 and 2003 is attributable to normative change, and the rest to increases in the proportions of urban and educated people. South Korea is now the first Asian country to reverse the trend in rising sex ratios at birth. The paper discusses the cultural underpinnings of son preference in pre-industrial Korea, and how these were unraveled by industrialization and urbanization, while being buttressed by public policies upholding the patriarchal family system. Finally, the authors hypothesize that child sex ratios in China and India will decline well before they reach South Korean levels of development, since they have vigorous programs to accelerate normative change to reduce son preference.