Assessment of attitude of the women of the reproductive age group toward girl child in an urban slum in Punjab

• Main Authors: Rajinder S Balgir, Sumeet Singh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU
• Subjects: Female feticide; gender discrimination; mothers attitude toward girl child; sex ratio
• Online Access: http://www.ijournalhs.org/article.asp?issn=2542-6214;year=2015;volume=8;issue=1;spage=52;epage=55;aulast=Balgir

Introduction: Girl child continues to be insecure and vulnerable in South-East Asia particularly in India despite various legal measures. Only law cannot be a solution, identifying the social factors and working on their improvements are also essential. Aims and Objectives: (1) To assess the present child sex ratio (0-6 child sex ratio [CSR]) in defined study population. (2) To assess the attitude of the women of the reproductive age group toward the girl child and relate it to the status of sex ratio. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a sub locality of 283 households out of which 147 households having children in age group of 0-6 years were selected and mothers of children were interviewed with a prestructured pretested questionnaire containing a rating scale of 40 items in vernacular language to determine the attitude of the mother toward girl child. Results: Total no. of children in the age group of 0-6 years were found to be 241, with CSR of 709 but had a sharp contrast in children <2 years with CSR nearing 1000 as compared to elder children with much lower Figures 50.4%, 10.9%, and 38.7% of the respondent mothers had a positive, mixed, and negative attitude toward girl child respectively. Discussion: The negative attitude especially among mothers should be well addressed. Awareness among them needs to be raised along with appropriate changes in society to bring the reputation of females at par with male counterparts.