Patriarchal societies are part of the problem of altered sex ratios, Female Infanticide and foeticide. This needs to be acknowledged and changed. India's sex ratio, among children aged 0-6 years, is alarming. The ratio has declined from 976 females (for every 1000 males) in 1961 to 914 in 2011. Every national census has documented a decline in the ratio, signalling a ubiquitous trend. Preliminary data from the 2011 census have recorded...

After gaining 12 healthy points since the 2001 Census, the literacy rate of Uttar Pradesh moved closer to the national average of 74.04%. The state registered a literacy rate of 69.72% in the 2011 Census. Top performers in the state, which helped in increasing the percentage by several points are Ghaziabad (85%), Gautam Budh Nagar (82.20%) and capital Lucknow (79.33%). Female literacy rates in the state have also registered a remarkable jump...

With the provisional figures for the 2011 Census sounding an alarm over the falling child sex ratio, it's a good time to look at who really is responsible for this. Who's committing female feticide and infanticide? Available figures show that it's not the poorest and least literate people and communities who are responsible; to the contrary, the reverse is true. The 2011 numbers show that the states with the worst child...

Later this week, the Registrar General of India (RGI) will unveil the first flush of its findings from the 15th census. This once-in-a-decade effort is the seventh in independent India and is expected to showcase an entirely new set of vital statistics, consistent with the ongoing social and economic transformation of the country and something that should enthuse demographers and policy planners alike. Expectations are that the array of socio-economic data...

Stating that there were “fewer women then men in India,” President Pratibha Patil on Thursday cautioned that if this trend continued it would have a negative impact on society. Punjab and Haryana were already seeing the “implications,” she said delivering the Dr. V.N. Tewari Memorial Oration on ‘Women as drivers of a rising India' at the Panjab University here. The President said: “An agenda for empowerment of women should cover gender needs...