Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Scheduled tribes show worrying decline in child sex ratio

Scheduled tribes show worrying decline in child sex ratio

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jun 2, 2014   modified Modified on Jun 2, 2014
-The Times of India
 

The scheduled tribes in India have traditionally had the highest sex ratios - the number of women for every 1,000 men - among all communities. But, detailed data on individual tribal communities just put out by the census shows that the situation is worsening in almost each case. And the sex ratio in the population aged zero to six is significantly lower.

In 2011, India's ST population as a whole had a sex ratio of 990, much better than the national ratio of 943. The child sex ratio for 0-6 years of age was also significantly better for tribals at 957 than for the country as a whole (919). It was, however, worryingly lower than the overall sex ratio.

Sex Ratio SC ST 

Detailed data now shows that this decline is happening more or less across the board. Of the 58 tribal communities for which the census has compiled data, 27 have overall sex ratios of over 1,000. In other words, in all these tribes, women outnumber men. In one more tribe, the Thadous of Manipur, the sex ratio is 1,000 which means there are about as many women as men. However, when it comes to the child sex ratio, there are only two tribal groups - the Bhottadas/Dhotadas and the Bhuias/Bhuyans, both from Orissa - which have a ratio of over 1,000.

All 56 others have fewer girls than boys with the ratio dipping to as low as 879 among the Sugalis and 888 among the Malayalis of the south and 888 among Minas, a tribe found largely in Rajasthan. Even among the Minas, the overall sex ratio of 919 is significantly better than the CSR, though it's the lowest for any tribal group. Among the Sugalis and Malayalis, the overall sex ratios are much higher at 957 and 970 respectively.

The released data also shows how wide the variation is among tribal communities on a crucial development indicator like literacy. While the overall literacy rate of 59% among STs is much lower than the national average of 73%, individual tribal groups have rates ranging from as high as 97.5% - among the Mizo tribes - to as low as 31.8% among the Bakarwals of Jammu & Kashmir.

What is also noticeable %is the large gender gap in literacy among STs. India's male literacy rate of 80.9% is about 16 percentage points higher than the female literacy rate of 64.6%.

Among STs, this gender gap widens to over 19 percentage points with male ST literacy at 68.5% against 49.4% for females.

However, the figures for tribes as a whole conceal wide variations across individual tribal groups. For instance, among the most literate tribal groups, the Mizos, there is virtually no difference between male literacy (98%) and female literacy (97%). There is even a group, the Jaintias and Khasis of Meghalaya, in which female literacy at 78.5% is higher than male literacy at 75.5%.

In general, tribal groups in the northeast have both high literacy rates and lower gender gaps in literacy. The Nyishis of Arunachal Pradesh have the lowest literacy rate of 63.2% in the region, but that is still higher than the national average for STs.

In most other parts of the country, however, the gender gap in literacy rates among tribals is 20 percentage points or more. The Minas, once again, are at an extreme in the spectrum, with a male literacy rate of 76.9% against a female rate of just 44%, a gap of nearly 33 percentage points.

The data reveals quite clearly how it would be dangerous for policymakers to treat the scheduled tribes of India or even those of a single region as one homogenous entity. While there is little doubt that STs as a whole are a severely deprived section, some are particularly badly deprived.


The Times of India, 1 June, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Scheduled-tribes-show-worrying-decline-in-child-sex-ratio/articleshow/35861330.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close