Pink survey tabled in Parliament, asks Indians to confront son preference

New Delhi: The pink-coloured Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Monday recommended that India must confront the societal preference for a son, observing the adverse sex ratio of females to males had led to 63 million “missing” women.

The colour of this year’s survey cover was chosen as a symbol of support for the growing movement to end violence against women, that spans continents. Laying special emphasis on gender development, the survey, tabled by finance minister Arun Jaitley, cautioned that on several indicators, notably employment, use of reversible contraception, and a preference for sons, India has some distance to traverse despite its economic progress.

The percentage of working women has declined over time from 36 per cent employed in 2005-06 to 24 per cent of women employed in 2015-16, the survey noted.

It acknowledges that the government's ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ and ‘Sukanya Samridhi Yojana’ schemes, and mandatory maternity leave rules are all steps in the right direction, saying measures like increasing maternity leave will offer support to women.

Nearly 47 per cent of women do not use any contraception, the survey stated.