Abstract:

The development of the nation which is not engendered is considered to be endangered. Sex ratio of any country is not just a demographic variable but an important indicator of country’s gender development index. Anadverse sex ratio reveals a lopsided social development and violation of human rights. The time frame of this decline in India coincides with the era of women’s movement of 1970s. This gives rise to a paradox betweenreassertion of patriarchal ideology of son-preference and normative construction of girl child on one hand and emergence of new reproductive rights on the other.The state of Gujarat has recorded a rapid decline in the overall and the child sex ratio (CSR) since the last century, especially after independence. On one hand it boasts of being one of the fastest developingstates with a great economic, industrial and infrastructural growth with high level of literacy. On the other hand, its sex ratio especially the child sex ratio is falling at a devastating rate. Amongst the major urbancenters with low CSR, the city of Vadodara has indicated a rapidly declining child sex ratio. Vadodara due to its distinct history and location at the heart of the state, is a place of paradoxicalcontrasts—of educational emancipation and social regress.This study examines the declining CSR in urban Vadodara, Gujarat within the broader socio-cultural and economic structures responsible for the adverse trend in post colonial period especially after the introduction ofNRTs in 1970s which is the same decade in which new social feminist movements were emerging. Seeking to understand the general trend and transition in the decline in CSR, it tries to comprehend the underlyingfactors responsible in the domestic sphere especially the son –preference and normative construction of a girl child in the Guajarati culture for the decline. It also examines the impact of the visible trendon the social fabric in general, and institution of marriage in particular. The paper is based on the data collected through an intensive field work in Vadodara during 2009-2015.

About the Speaker:

Khevana Desai is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mithibai college of Arts, Mumbai for last 7 years. She completed her PhD from Research Center for Women’s Studies (RCWS), SNDT on “Declining child sex ratioin Vadodara city: a study of causes, impacts and campaigns” in February 2016. She has been a visiting faculty at Research center for Women's Studies (SNDT) and at NMIMS's School of Commerce and School of LiberalArts. She has been a Project fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai for a UGC project on “Tourism processes and gender relations: a case of Goa” for the years 2007-09. Her major areas ofinterest include Gender and Demography, Feminist research methodologies, sex selective abortion and sex determination, gender and tourism, and, gender and environment.