Women, who bear more than half of the work burden and over three fourths of the burden of reproduction and perform double day work everyday, continue to be on the periphery of mainstream social life.

They continue to constitute the locus classicus of exploitation, oppression, discrimination, neglect inequalities and injustice. The latest gender gap report of the World Economic Forum has placed Indian women among the world’s worst.

The anti-female biases such as sex-selective abortion of female fetuses, unequal treatment or ill-treatment in some cases in matters pertaining to work at home and outside, wages, food and nutrition, general health and reproductive health, participation in decision making process which affect their lives, education, etc., inter alia, have been causing incalculable harm to women.

Sex ratios

But the ultimate indicator of anti-female biases are sex ratios, which refers to the number of women for every thousand men in the population, and the sex ratio of children in the age group of 0-6 years. The former indicates the extent of the present female disadvantage and the latter the extent of the future scenario. It is out of the notion of sex ratio, that Amartya Sen derived the notion of “missing women” in 1986.

These “missing women” does not refer to women who can be traced back. Here the notion refers to women who are missing for ever. It refers to those women who should have been alive had they been given equal treatment along with men in all matters which have bearing on their life and death. And sex ratio is used as the basis for measuring “missing women”.

Women are said to be missing if the sex ratio is less than unity or if the number of women is less than 1000 for 1000 men. We should bother about this because it is a man-made phenomenon. There is strong medical evidence to the effect that given equal care, women tend to have lower age specific mortality rates than men. As such it is a matter of great concern. Sen ranks gender bias in mortality among the worst catastrophe of the 21st century in India. He says that the number of missing women in the early 90’s is larger than the combined casualties of all famines in the 20th century in India.

In this background, let us inquire into the problem of "missing women" in Karnataka. It is disheartening to note that the sex ratio in Karnataka has declined from 983 in 1901 to 965 in 2001. Karnataka has remained in the last place in sex ratio among the four South Indian states at both the points of time.

Decline

On the basis of sex ratio in 2001, the total missing women in Karnataka is 9.41 lakh. The proportion of missing women in Karnataka is 3.5 per cent. However, Kerala is a women surplus state. The sex ratio in this state is 1058. In Tamil Nadu, the proportion of missing women is 1.4 per cent while in Andhra Pradesh, it is 2.2 per cent.

In Karnataka, there are three women-surplus districts. They are Udupi (1127), Dakshin Kannada (1023) and Hassan (1005). On the other extreme, there are five districts where the proportion of missing women exceeds 5 per cent. Because of the female disadvantage in survival and anti female bias, Karnataka has been losing a large number of women.

The 2001 census has brought to light another alarming aspect of missing women. The sex ratio of children in 0-6 age group has declined in Karnataka from 960 in 1991 to 946 in 2001. It is a matter of great concern. The per cent of missing girl child is estimated to be larger than the per cent of missing women. (5.4 per cent).

The State Human Development Report – 2005 has the following to say about missing girl child. "The child sex ratio signals the onset of a scary scenario where women could vanish and society would have just one gender".

The National Family Health Survey - 3 carried out in 2005-06 has revealed that in Karnataka 83 per cent of women suffer from under weight and 58 per cent of pregnant women live with anaemia.

The policies and programmes favourable to women alone cannot set right the complex issues of gender inequality. A paradigm shift in the attitude of people and society is necessary to put an end to gender discrimination and female disadvantage in survival.