The growing number of women in India!!

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has given good news amid concerns that the gender gap in the country is widening day by day. The Union Ministry of Health has released the results of the fifth survey conducted by NFHS. For the first time in the country, there were more women than men. The survey estimated that there were 1,020 women for every thousand men. In 1990, there were 927 women for every 1000 men. It will take two decades for women to outplay men in numbers in India.

The sex ratio varies in Urban and rural areas across the country. Another feature is that the female population in terms of gender ratio is higher in rural areas than in cities. There were 985 women for every thousand men in the cities, and 1037 women in the villages. India, the world's second-most populous country, is moving towards population stabilization, the survey said. The total fertility rate (TFT) fell from 2.2 to 2.0. If TFT is less than 2 it is calculated that there will be a decrease in population over time.

Overall, significant progress has been made in terms of fertility, family planning, age of marriage, and women's empowerment. There are many reasons for the downtrend of growth of population and the increase of women population.

1.       Globalization:  Opportunities have increased for 15 years because of the implementation of economic reforms by all governments. Those who completed minimum education are sure to get jobs in the globalization period. Both men and women get benefited from the reforms.

2.       Empowerment: Women empowered themselves after they start living on their income. This got an option to decide their personal life. It is a common phenomenon many employed women prefer to go for marriage after 28 years and go with one child.

3.       External Factors: People are worried about the cost of living to survive. Even though they earned with two hands they should spend lavishly on education and health services. Both these sectors are costly these days. That prevents couples to limit with one child.

4.       Pregnancy Delay: 66.7 percent of married women under the age of 15-49 in the country are using any of the family planning tools to delay or prevent pregnancy. This trend has increased significantly compared to five years ago. At the time it was 53.5 percent.

India should learn lessons from China and Japan on population. Both these nations are suffering for two different reasons. China which was successfully implemented a one or none family policy in the 1980s wants to change the policy again. As per the latest family policy, the Chinese government encouraged people for 3 children. Productivity given people are less and aged people are growing in China and Japan.