Missing women
Topic: Population of India: Distribution, Density, Growth and Composition · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
"Missing women" is a term Amartya Sen coined in 1990. It means women who should be alive but are not. They died because girls and women got less food and health care than boys and men, or because female foetuses were aborted on purpose (sex-selective abortion). In India the number runs into tens of millions. The term turns a low sex ratio into a human count that is easy to grasp.
Example
In Haryana, Census 2011 counted only 879 females per 1,000 males, the lowest of any state. Kerala counted 1,084. Haryana's gap stands for a large number of missing women.
Don't confuse with
- Sex ratio: this is a measure (females per 1,000 males). "Missing women" is the estimated number of women lost because that ratio fell below its natural level.