A gender turnaround in UP spells hope for women all across India

News: According to the recent NFHS-5 data, Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) overall sex ratio improved from 995 females per 1,000 males to 1,017. Further, UP also improved in various other metrics on Women empowerment.

Why UP’s achievement is significant?

This is significant as the state has rigid patriarchal norms, historically skewed sex ratio, high son preference and high fertility, low levels of girls’ education, low female labour force participation etc.

What are the concerns associated with NFHS-5 data on UP?

1. This improvement could be due to male migration to other states for work, 2. Many other northern states still have skewed sex ratios so the data on UP might not reliable.

Why does the improvement of UP is significant for India?

-When a populous and poor state begins to experience large positive shifts, then it has a disproportionate impact on the country’s development picture as UP.

-It signals a much earlier reversal of daughter discrimination in India than anticipated.

-UP is still contributing the largest number of girls ‘missing at birth’ to India’s total. So, the improvement in UP signifies acceptance of girl children among society.

Terms to know:

• National Family Health Survey (NFHS)

Source: This post is based on the article “A gender turnaround in UP spells hope for women all across India” published in Livemint on 29th November 2021.