Census 1931: In sex ratio, ‘lower castes' and tribals outperformed ‘upper castes'

Indian Express

a day ago

The last time that castes were counted as a part of the Census, in 1931, the significant trend that had been noted was that generally 'the ratio of females to males increases inversely with social standing among Hindus'.
In other words, Hindu caste groups higher in the social hierarchy tended to have lower sex ratios (sex ratio being the number of women per 1,000 men).
Now, the counting of castes in the next Census – announced by the government recently and scheduled to be completed in 2027 – would generate data evaluating caste as regards literacy, sex ratio and other such things, for the first time in almost a century. This would arm governments with specific details regarding which castes in which part of India need specific intervention for social development.
The 1931 Census, for example, found that in the erstwhile Bombay state, 'for the advanced castes, the ratio of women to men is 878 per 1000, for the intermediate castes it is 935 per 1000, for the aboriginal tribes 956 and for the other backwards 953, while for the depressed classes it rises to 982 per 1,000 males'. In other words, Dalits in the erstwhile Bombay state had the highest sex ratio while the 'forward castes' had the lowest sex ratio among Hindus.
While this largely reflected patriarchal social relations, the Census report said one factor was the 'purdah' system among 'upper castes' and Muslims, which might have restricted access of enumerators to women among these groups and led to fewer women being counted. However, it noted, this would have led to only a small skew, not a large one.
Even in states where women outnumbered men – like Bihar and Orissa (now Odisha), and Central Provinces, apart from Berar, a part of present-day Madhya Pradesh – the Census said, the gap was more pronounced among 'lower castes'. 'Thus in Bihar and Orissa there are 964 Brahmin females to every 1,000 Brahmin males, but in the Hari caste there are 1,009 females to every 1,000 males,' the Census report said. The Hari caste it referred to were Dalits involved in scavenging.
The Census report added: 'Similarly, in the Central Provinces, there are 863 Brahmin females to 1,000 males, but 965 Sonar, 1,017 Kalar and 1,117 Ghasia females to 1,000 males of their respective castes. The aboriginal tribes which have retained their tribal religions show for India as a whole an excess of females per 1,000 males, their ratio being 1,009.'
It suggested that migration patterns may explain the excess of women among tribal communities in some parts of India. 'It seems likely that this high ratio of females among the aborigines of Chhota Nagpur and of the Agency Tracts of Madras is partly due to the recruiting of males for labour on the Assam tea gardens and the figures of emigration to Assam confirm the supposition, as the Census Superintendent for that province remarks on the very poor recruitment of women coolies during the decade.'
Age matrix
When it comes to religious communities, the 1931 Census showed an almost universal fall in sex ratio after one year of age, except among tribals. For instance, between the ages of 0 and 1, the sex ratio among Sikhs was 947, among Muslims 999, among Hindus 1,017, among Christians 1,002 and among tribals 1,045. This fell compared to overall sex ratio among all – the Sikhs had a sex ratio of 784, the Muslims 904, the Hindus 941, the Christians 952 and the tribals 1,009. Thus, among all communities except the tribals, where the gap was marginal, the Census report indicated women dying after infancy more often than men, 'indicating the comparative wastage of female life from whatever causes'.
'The death rate among females is higher than among males in the 5 to 10 years age group; this is due to the neglect of female children… A study of the specific death rates shows that after the age of 5, only in the 40 and above age groups is the female death rate lower than the male,' the Census reported. This phenomenon indicated that apart from the deaths of females in childhood because of relative neglect, women also died more during the child-bearing age because of frequent child birth, or because of diseases arising from child birth in times when childbirth in clinics was far rarer.