The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1912-10-03

" number :SSs' says - . recent
Girl babies are not being thrown
into the Gauges so freely as they
were years ago, and the Hindu Wild
oWs are not immolating themselves
on their husbands funeral pyres as
they once did, but the same feeling
toward widows and baby girls still
prevails, and works against their
lives in subtler ways. The result is.
we are told in the Lahore Tribune.
that female mortality is so high that
IN middle life the men greatly out
number the women. The decennial
census just completed by the Gov
eminent shows this clearly. Strange
ly enough, in the early and late
stages Of life the women somewhat
predominant, but in middle life their
number falls far short. Thus, of the
$4,000, 600 East Indians under five
years old, there are 100000 more
girls than boys. But the females
seem to disappear more rapidly than
the males, with the result that be-
tween the tenth and fifteenth year
there are f8.500,000 boys and only
15,200,000 girls. Curious to say, of
those beyond sixty, the women are
slightly ahead Of the men in num-
Der. In some parts the shortage of
women, as a whole, is marked. For
instance, in the Punjab, one of the
largest provinces, there were on
March 10, 1910 (the day the census
was taken), 13,314,917 males, but
only 10,872,775 females, which
means that every fifth man in the
Punjab must go without wife-a
Yeritable calamity to a people among
whom celibacy is altogether absent,
while some among them like to show
Off their afHuence by possessing more
wives than one. To increase India's
CONSERVATION, it finds that not one,
but all the communities and races
show disparity in their male and fe-
male population. This is evident
from the following analysis printed
in The Tribune.
"The total Hindu population OF
Punjab is S,773, 621, 4,821,031 males
and 3,952,590 females. The total
Sikh population is 2,883,729, 1851
sos males and 1,232,134 females.
The Jain population is very incon-
siderable, 46,775, with 25, $50 males
and 81 ,495 females. The Moham-
ILGudn pOpu1dt1OI, the ldIS0SJ III Tie
province, is 12,275,477, comprized
of 6,695,943 males and 5,579,534 fe-
males The female population is
uniformly smaller than the male
population among all communities /"
In fact, the figures conclusively
prove the statement made by Mr.. A.
E. Gait, midas Census Commission
er, that "the proportion of sexes at
birth is not very different from that
in Europe, but subsequent conditions
are relatively less favorable to fe-
male life so it is quite natural that
India should begin to sit up and take
notice of the toll the country is pay
ing for it's neglect of women. We
find M R. Sawhney saying in The
Tribune that this want of unifornli-
ty in the male and female popula-
tion is great social dan
ger" and he frankly analyses the
causes that are responsible for this
alarming social condition. He says
in substance:
''To start with, female offspring
are not looked upon with the same
eye of affection as male children.
Curiously enough, this feeling is
common to the father and the moth
er. AS a natural consequence, infant
mortality is greater among the fe-
male sex than among the male.
"More women die Of disease than
- .