CHENNAI: While not as rampant as in other parts of the country like Punjab and Haryana, daughter elimination is very much prevalent in Tamil Nadu, according to Sharada Srinivasan, associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Gender, Justice and Development College of Social and Applied Human Sciences University of Guelph Ontario, Canada.
Delivering a talk on ‘Daughter deficit and the situation of unmarried men in a South Indian community’ at the Madras Institute of Development Studies here on Tuesday, she said a likely effect of the continuing decline in the proportion of girls to boys in countries such as India is bride shortage. In the case of Tamil Nadu, particularly, despite the relatively high status of women, the state recorded a steady decline in its 0–6 age group sex ratio. The ratio had fallen from 985 in 1961 to 942 in 2001, she pointed out.
Srinivasan, who was earlier assistant professor in International Development Studies at York University Toronto, is the author of Daughter Deficit: Sex Selection in Tamil Nadu (Women Unlimited), which explores the issue in depth.
She is part of a three-country study examining the social transformation underway due to daughter deficit and has researched the relative value of daughters and sons among the Punjabi community in Canada and the transnational implications of daughter deficit.
The researcher said that while the practice appeared to be dominant among the propertied and land-owning families in the dominant castes in Tamil Nadu such as Kongu Velalla, Kallar, Gounder in Salem and Vellore district, daughter elimination occurred across all castes. “The Kongu Velalla community, in particular, in south India has had a long history of daughter elimination resulting in female deficit,” Srinivasan stated. “This has led to reported difficulty of the men of the caste in finding brides,” he added.