Investigation of Sex Ratio in Scheduled Castes (SC) in Ahmednagar District

This paper attempted to examine and map the spatio-temporal changes in the sex ratio of the Scheduled Castes (SC) community using tahsil level data obtained from the 2001 and 2011 census of Ahmednagar District. Census 2001 indicate that District had registered 958 females per 1000 males, Akole had the highest sex ratio with 1002 whereas Rahuri had the lowest with 932, while in 2011 district shows an increase of 968 females per 1000 male but on tahsil level, great regional disparities in sex ratios among SC community were observed. The highest sex ratio had been observed in Shrirampur (1000) whereas the lowest was in Shrigonda (951). There were five tahsils namely, Shrirampur (32), Shevgaon (26), Rahuri (22), Kopergaon (17) and Parner (13) recorded positive change whereas Jamkhed (-31), Akole (-19), and Pathardi (-16), recorded negative change during 2001-2011. With the decreasing trend of sex ratio, some of the common reasons put forward are son preference, neglect of girl child, lack of medical facilities, and low literacy rate.