A Study on the Sex Ratio of Mizo In Mizoram

Mizoram is one of the states of India, sandwiched between 92015’ E to 930 29’ E longitudes and 21058’ N to 24035’ N latitudes. It is bounded by Myanmar in the east and south, Bangladesh and Tripura state in the west, Assam state and Manipur state in the north. It has an international boarder of 404 km and 318 km with Myanmar and Bangladesh respectively. The length of its inter-state boarder with Assam, Tripura and Manipur are 123 km, 66 km and 95 km respectively. The state has a geographical area of 21,081 Sq.km with a population of 10,91,014 in 2011. 3. Sex Ratio: Sex ratio is the number of females per 1,000 males. The gender imbalance may arise as consequences of various factors like poverty, natural factors, exposure to pesticides and environmental contaminations, war casualties, gender- selective abortions and infanticides, aging and deliberate gender ide. It is biologically proved that female foetus is stronger than male foetus which implies that women may live longer than male (Rudder Datt and Sun haram KPM: 1999). As a result, in the advanced western countries, the sex ratio is very high (Annexure I). In a developing economy, high infant mortality, extremely poor or nonexistent medical facilities, extremely unhygienic conditions of living, absence of pre-natal and post-natal care, high death rate among female are all manifestations of the abjectly low level of living of the people. In the absence of old age security schemes, the son is considered to be an insurance against old age, which is reinforced by allotment of good diet to the son. This resulted in a higher proportion of male over female. 4. Objective of the paper: The paper try to – (i) Identify which gender – male or female is more than the other, (ii)Find the main cause of sex ratio reversal of Mizoram in 1971, and (iii) Estimate the projected sex ratio in 2021. 5. Tools and methodology: Simple tools like ratio, absolute number, graphs, Z-test for difference of proportion, SPSS and Chi-square are employed. All the sources are secondary in nature, however, as the sources are assumed to be reliable, errors are considered to be minimal. 6. Indian scenario: All India average sex ratio is940 in 2011. There are 18 states/ UTs above the National average while there are 17 states/ UTs below the average. The highest sex ratio is Kerala with 108.4 females per 100males, followed by Pondicherry (103.8), Tamil Nadu (99.5), Andra Pradesh (99.2) and Chhattisgarh (99.1). The lowest ratio is 61.8 from Daman & Diu, followed by Dadra & Nagar Haveli (77.5), Chandigarh (81.8). Detail sex ratio is depicted in annexure II. 7. 1.Temporal sex ratio of Mizoram: Even during the primitive type of economy, Mizoram hasa higher proportion of females over males as shown in table 1. The state recorded sex ratio higher than 100 till the 1961 census. The ratio was lower than 100 since 1971 and further deteriorates in 1981, but started to pick up from 1991. The year 1971 is remarkable as the sex ratio is reversed.

Source: Statistical Abstract of Mizoram – 2011 7.2. District wise sex ratio of Mizoram: There are 8 administrative districts in Mizoram and the district wise statistic is available from 1971 only, ie, the ‘year of sex ratio reversal’.Out of 40 sex ratio, only 5 ratios show a ration higher than 100 (Table 2). The Chi-square test gives the calculated Chi-square of 2.902 which is significant for 24 df at all levels. From the analysis of district wise sex ratio, males are more in numbers than females in Mizoram. However, the objective is to analysis the sex ratio among Mizo tribe only. Therefore, from the sex ratio of Mizoram conclusion cannot be drawn regarding the sex ratio of Mizo tribe.

Source: Director of Census Operations Mizoram 8. Mizo tribe and Christianity nexus: Mizoram is predominantly dominated by theMizo tribe. 94.45% and 86.97% of the population is tribal and Christian respectively in 2001. Almost all Mizos (may be up to 99.99%) are Christian, and almost all the Christian are Mizo with an exception of a negligible size of Non-mizo Christians. The Christian statistics may be found in the Church statistic. The total members of 8 major Churches was 8,92,753 in 2011 which was 81.36% of the state’s population. Therefore, from the principle of regression estimation, it is safe to use the population of the 8 major Churches as the Mizo tribe statistic.

Source: Statistical Abstract of Mizoram – 2011 Out of the 8 major churches, 7 churches have more female’s members than males in 2011-12 while 5 churches have more female members in 2010-11. Females are more than males by 5,623 in 2010-11 and by 10,345 in 2011-12, which is an increase of 83.97% over the previous year. A hypothesis is tested using Z- statistic for difference of proportion to see if the gender difference is significant or not. The calculated Z statistic is -10.78 which is significant at all levels. Therefore, it can be concluded that females are significantly more than males in the Church statistic.

(i) The reason for decline in sex ratio is exogenous in nature. The Mizo National Front (MNF) initiated an independent movement from the Indian Administration on March 1, 1966 as a result of which the state experienced military insurgency for 20 years. Many Mizo youths were underground and excluded in the census 1971, due to closure of many schools many male youths went out of Mizoram to continue education which were excluded in the census again, and to counter the MNF cadre, many Indian paramilitary personnel entered Mizoram and these were included in Censuses. These resulted in the reversal of sex ratio in 1971. The year 1971 may be known as ‘year of sex ratio reversal’. (ii) Considering Church Statistic as a representative of Mizo tribe, it is found that females are more than males among Mizo Tribe. Before the massive entry of central paramilitary forces in Mizoram, the sex ratio always cross 100 which is in conformity with the present sex composition of pure Mizo tribe Christian statistic. (iii) The regression line for 1981 – 2011 data fitted to cubic model is Y = 91.51+1.022X-0.83X2+0.238X3 withR2 = 1 (annexure IV).The

India.

Govt. of Mizoram, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Statistical Handbook – 2012, Aizawl Govt. of Mizoram, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Mizoram – 2011,Aizawl

Rudder Datt and Sundharam KPM (1999), Indian Economy, 40th Ed. New Delhi, S. Chand & Company Ltd

(Sex ratio of certain advanced countries)

1 China 105.87 106.08 106.28 2 United States of America

97.74 97.90 98.28

3 UK and Northern Ireland

95.90 96.58 97.20

4 Germany 95.95 96.07 96.63 5 Japan 95.28 94.97 94.68 Source: http://knoema.com/atlas/United-Kingdom-of-Great-Britain-and-Northern-Ireland/topics/Demographics/Population/Sex-ratio as on 25th January 2016

1 Kerala 108.4 2 Pondicherry 103.8 3 Tamil Nadu 99.5 4 Andhra Pradesh 99.2 5 Chhattisgarh 99.1 6 Manipur 98.7 7 Meghalaya 98.6 8 Orissa 97.8 9 Mizoram 97.5 10 Himachal Pradesh 97.4 11 Goa 96.8 12 Karnataka 96.8 13 Uttar Pradesh 96.3 14 Tripura 96.1 15 Assam 95.4 16 Jharkhand 94.7 17 West Bengal 94.7 18 Lakshadweep 94.6

19 Nagaland 93.1 20 Madhya Pradesh 93.0 21 Rajashthan 92.6 22 Maharashtra 92.5 23 Arunachal Pradesh 92.0 26 Uttarakhand 90.8 27 Punjab 89.3 28 Sikkim 88.9 29 Jammu & Kashmir 88.3 30 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 87.8 31 Haryana 87.7 32 NCT of Delhi 86.6 33 Chandigarh 81.8 34 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 77.5 35 Daman & Diu 61.8

(Sex ratio of Mizoram since 1901)

Source: Generated by SPSS