KARACHI – Out on the streets, one feels like the number of men in the country far exceeds the number of women. A look at census records shows, however, that this is a numerical reality too, with district Tharparker in Sindh having the worst gender ratio in the country.
Pakistan as a whole has 108.5 men for every 100 women, according to data on the website of the government’s Statistics Division’s Population Census Organisation. Rural areas of the country have 106.6 men for every 100 women, while there are 112.2 men per 100 women in urban areas.
Optimum (or natural) gender ratios favour women due to their higher life expectancy. Ratios in countries such as China, India, Pakistan and others in the Middle-East, on the other hand, are skewed in favour of men.
In China and India, the primary culprits are said to be gender-selection and foeticide. Determining that in Pakistan, however, is next to impossible because abortions, except to save the life of the mother, are still illegal. As such, if they are performed for reasons other than those defined by the law, no paper trail is left behind.
Experts maintain that a higher population of men in industrialised urban areas of the country might be explained by the fact that men leave families behind in villages and migrate to industrial areas to make a living. They added that disparities in rural areas, meanwhile, can only be explained by three factors: errors in the census collection methods, early deaths of women and girls due to lack of access to proper nutrition, and gender-selection or foeticide.
“Poverty might be a factor, along with the practice of saving the best resources and food for men and boys in the family,” they said. “But gender-selection and foeticide cannot be ruled out until disproved comprehensively. That, however, cannot be done because no records of the process are maintained.” Interestingly, in many countries in Europe and North America, where abortions have been legal for a while, gender ratios still favour women.
Going by statistics in Pakistan, meanwhile, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA appear to have the most balanced gender ratios in the country (as compared to other administrative regions). Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has 105 men for every 100 women, while FATA has 108.4 men for every 100 women. Islamabad (rural and urban combined) has the worst record here, with 117 men for every 100 women.
While the total number of men for every 100 women stands at 112.2 in Sindh as a whole, District Tharparker in the province has the worst countrywide numbers with more than 120 men for every 100 women. This is surprising given that Tharparker has a primarily migrant population, while many men leave farming to the women and seek work as cooks in urban areas. Had this not been the case therefore, statistics from Tharparker would have been even more skewered.
Preparations, meanwhile, are under way for the 2011 population and housing census which is expected to be conducted in August and September. As to whether numbers in terms of gender ratio have changed over the past 10 years remains to be seen.
