Social Exclusion and Women: A Study of Differential Sex Ratio In North India

Abstract

Social Exclusion of women and gender inequalities or discrimination on the basis of sex has been major social issue and challenge in India in the context of an egalitarian society. Social scientists more especially sociologists have paid much attention to understand the problem from various analytical and theoretical perspectives. Indeed, social exclusion of women has been existing since time immemorial in all known societies mainly in patriarchal societies like India. Very often these gender-based inequalities are justified in terms of values and reproduced through structural systems. No doubt improvements in the status of women have taken place as a result of many policies related to inclusion of women. However, gender inequalities have not been completely removed; they still persist in one form or other in all modern societies. India is not an exception, one of the indicators of social exclusion of women is the declining sex ratio. This study is mainly based on the secondary data particularly data published by Census of India in different time periods. The objectives of this paper are to find out the socio-cultural factors and practices contributing to social exclusion of women and to find out the reasons for gender-based discrimination in North India and propose some policy intervention and recommendations for addressing the root causes for social exclusion of women and lead to decline in sex ratio.