A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Child Sex Ratio Distribution and Its Determinants in India Using Longitudinal Census Data 1961-2011

Ritwika Mukherjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The present study attempts to diagnose the changing spatial contours of Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in India in relation to other social, economic and cultural determinants from 1961-2011 using Census of India data. In order to do so, a synchronic approach has been adopted which sequentially adjusts the spatial effect through two levels: first by controlling the larger regional heterogeneity and later through local level dependence denoting hot-spots of gender discrimination. Besides conventional OLS regressions, standard ESDA tools have been used to explain the growing ambit of declining CSR across the country. Results reveal that systematic adjustments of spatial effects on the socio-economic determinants of CSR is important as a change in spatial scale often significantly modifies the effect possessed by other factors as well as structurally alters the regression specification pointing to some unobserved regionalized factors that are spatially interacting in nature.