The Human Development Report for 1995 published by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) made a striking revelation that there was not a single country where women enjoyed equality with men.

India has the distinction of being the first country in the developing world to initiate a family planning programme-it later came to be called the Family Welfare Programme (FWP)-with a view to bring down the country's fertility level and contain population growth.

We use data from the 1981 and 1991 censuses of India to examine (a) sex ratios among infants aged under 2, (b) child mortality (q5) by sex, and (c) estimated period sex ratios at birth (SRB) calculated by reverse survival methods, to see whether bias against female children pers

NUPTIALITY plays a significant role in determining the level of fertility and growth rate in a population. The experience of several less developed countries where population growth rates have recently lowered has well demonstrated this effect.

The high female infant mortality rates (Miller, 1985); the practice of female infanticide (Krishnaswamy, 1988); the neglect of female children with regard to access to health services, nutrition, (Sen and Sengupta, 1983 and education (Mankekar, 1985); and the sexual abuse of girls (Bhalerao, 1985

In many developing countries, women's activities, traditionally confined to the household, have changed over time.