Sex-ratio is in favour of female because __________________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Girl babies have greater resistance to disease
Option (1) More boy babies are born — Incorrect. It is a fact that slightly more male babies are born: nature produces roughly 943 to 952 female babies for every 1000 males. But this works against the females; it cannot be the reason the sex ratio favours them.
Option (2) Girl babies are neglected because of ‘son preference’ — Incorrect. Son preference and the relative neglect of girl babies are the reason the sex ratio has been declining in countries like China, South Korea and India. They push the ratio against females.
Option (3) Girl babies have greater resistance to disease — Correct. The sex ratio is somewhat in favour of females for two reasons. First, girl babies appear to have an advantage over boy babies in terms of resistance to disease in infancy. Second, women tend to outlive men, so there are more older women than men; together these give roughly 1050 females per 1000 males.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.1 Some Theories and Concepts in Demography … The sex ratio refers to the number of females per 1000 males in a given area at a specified time period. Historically, all over the world it has been found that there are slightly more females than males in most countries. This is despite the fact that, slightly more male babies are born than female ones; nature seems to produce roughly 943 to 952 female babies for every 1000 males. If despite this fact the sex ratio is somewhat in favour of females, this seems to be due to two reasons. First, girl babies appear to have an advantage over boy babies in terms of resistance to disease in infancy. At the other end of the life cycle, women have tended to outlive men in most societies, so that there are more older women than men. The combination of these two factors leads to a sex ratio of roughly 1050 females per 1000 males in most contexts. However, it has been found that the sex ratio has been declining in some countries like China, South Korea and specially India. This phenomenon has been linked to prevailing social norms that tend to value males much more than females, which leads to ‘son preference’ and the relative neglect of girl babies.…” |