Which of the following factor is NOT responsible for declining child sex ratio?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Higher life expectancy among females
Option (1) Sex-Specific abortion — A factor (Incorrect). Sex-specific abortions prevent girl babies from being born; the sonogram, meant to find disorders in the foetus, is misused to identify and abort female foetuses.
Option (2) Neglect of girl babies in infancy — A factor (Incorrect). Severe neglect of girl babies in infancy leads to higher death rates among them.
Option (3) Higher life expectancy among females — Not a factor (Correct). The child sex ratio counts only children of 0–6 years. Women outliving men raises the number of older women, which works in favour of females in the sex ratio of the whole population; it cannot lower the number of girls among young children.
Option (4) Female infanticide — A factor (Incorrect). Female infanticide, the killing of girl babies due to religious or cultural beliefs, is the third factor held responsible for the decline.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.4 The Declining Sex-ratio in India … Several factors may be held responsible for the decline in the child sex ratio, including severe neglect of girl babies in infancy, leading to higher death rates; sex-specific abortions that prevent girl babies from being born; and female infanticide (or the killing of girl babies due to religious or cultural beliefs). Each of these reasons point to a serious social problem, and there is some evidence that all of these have been at work in India.…” “…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.…” |