International Women's Day: For the first time India has more women than men, shows govt survey

India now has more women than men. The country is not getting any younger. And India no longer faces the threat of a population explosion.

These are the findings of the fifth round of the National Family and Health Survey, which were released by the Union health ministry on Wednesday.

The survey indicates that India now has 1,020 women for every 1000 men.

Also See | International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2021: 'End Violence against Women Now!'

In 1990 when nobel laureate Amartya Sen coined the term "missing women", there were 927 women per 1,000 men in India. According to third round of the survey conducted in 2005-06, the ratio was equal, 1000: 1000. Then it went down to 991:1000 in 2015-16 in fourth survey.

This is the first time, in any NFHS or Census, that the sex ratio is skewed in favour of women.

There are other interesting findings. The share of population under the age of 15 years, which was 34.9% in 2005-06, has come down to 26.5% now. So, India is still a young country, but it is ageing.

The total fertility rate (TFR), or the average number of children per women in India, is now just 2, which is below the internationally accepted replacement level fertility rate. This means, India’s population may have peaked and there is no longer a threat of population explosion.

To be sure, NFHS is a sample survey, and whether these numbers apply to the larger population can only be said with certainty when the next national census is conducted.