(Daily News Scan - DNS English) State of The World Population Report 2020
Recently, The United Nations Population Fund has released the State of the World Population Report2020. This year’s report has been titled as ‘Against my will: defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality’.
This report says 4.6lakh girls were missing in India each year from 2013-2017. It is an outcome of sex selection that prefers a male child to a female child.
The report focuses on child marriage, son preference and gender biased sex selection, and female genital mutilation.
In this DNS we will look into the report in detail.
The report highlights human rights violations against women, focusing on three most prevalent ones – female genital mutilations, biasness against daughters and preference to sons, child marriage.
The State of the World Population Report2020, estimates that 142 million girls are missing globally and 46 million girls are missing in India due to gender biased sex selection. The gender-biased (pre-natal) sex selection accounts for about 2 out of 3 of the total missing girls in India, and post-birth female mortality accounts for about 1 in 3.
Sex ratio measures the number of females born for every 1,000 males. The report added that gender-biased sex selection tends to be higher among wealthy families, but percolates down to lower-income families over time, as sex selection technologies become more accessible and affordable.
According to estimates of missing female births due to pre-natal gender biased sex selection, averaged over a five- year period (2013-17), annually, there were 1.2 million missing female births at a global level. 90 percent of estimated 1.2 million missing female births annually worldwide due to gender-biased (prenatal) sex selection, are collectively from China (50%) and India (40%).
According to India’s Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2018, the sex ratio at birth is 899 for every 1000 boys born during the period 2016-18. 9 states- — Haryana, Uttrakhand, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar have sex ratio at birth below 900.
Son preferences and gender biased selection has led to loss of a huge number of girls globally and in India also. This is a harsh reality which is unacceptable. It also needs to be changed. The report mention that efforts have been made and progress has also been achieved in ending harmful practices worldwide. But a new threat of Covid -19 is expected to reverse the progress.
In one of the recent analysis, it has been revealed that if services and programmes remain shut for six months, an additional 13 million girls may be forced into marriage and 2 million more girls may be subjected to female genital mutilation between now and 2030.
The report also mentions that the drivers of child marriage are poverty, insecurity and limited access to quality education and work opportunities. These factors mean that child marriage is often seen as the best option for girls, or as a means to reduce the economic burden on the family.
The pandemic makes the situation tough requiring immediate help to the girls. As these girls are at a larger risk of many problems.
Tackle the issue the root cause needs to be addressed specially the gender biased norms. Women and girls need to be protected against practices like child marriage, female mutilations by enforcing strict laws against these practices.
