Given below are some statements regarding sex ratio. Select the ones which are true.

Statement I: Slightly more male babies than female babies are born naturally.

Statement II: In most societies, women tend to outlive men.

Statement III: These biological patterns alone would normally produce a sex ratio favourable to males.

Statement IV: Son preference has been linked to declining sex ratios in countries such as India and China.

Statement I, II and IV only

The correct answer is Option 1: Statement I, II and IV only.

Although slightly more male babies are born, female infants generally have greater resistance to disease and women tend to live longer than men. Consequently, these biological factors would normally produce a sex ratio favourable to females, not males. Therefore Statement III is incorrect.

Statement I: Slightly more male babies than female babies are born naturally. Correct. The nature produces approximately 943–952 female babies for every 1000 male babies.

Statement II: In most societies, women tend to outlive men. Correct. This contributes to a higher number of women in older age groups.

Statement III: These biological patterns alone would normally produce a sex ratio favourable to males. Incorrect. The opposite is true. Female survival advantages during infancy and old age would normally produce a sex ratio favourable to females.

Statement IV: Son preference has been linked to declining sex ratios in countries such as India and China. Correct. The text explicitly connects declining sex ratios with social norms that value sons more highly than daughters.

NCERT: 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.  "