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sex ratio of 874 (Subrahmanyam and Rao,1995) The relatively h~gh sex ratio in Kerala
likely to be due to the higher status of the girl child related to the matrilineal soc~ety
prevailing In the locality apart from the high literacy rate.
(b) Nutntion, health care and the ~ ~ child r l
Female children are generally glven Inadequate nutrition and health care
Stud~es
have shown that girts were breast fed for a shorter penod and d~scnm~natton was
shown between genders In glvlrrg hlgh nutnt~on or commercially available costly foods
nch In fat and milk (Ghosh 1990) The energy and proteln Intake of glrls was less than
boys at all ages and the difference was w~der In the adolescent penod (UNICEF.1990)
V~tamln A and Iron Intake among girls was also less than boys (UNICEF,1990) Thls
adversely affected the health status of g~rls A h~gher ratlo of female malnutr~t~on
espec~ally of the severe grade has been reported (Mukheqee,l991) A study In Punjab
compared prlwleged and under pnvlleged groups and found that 24 0% of females In
the former and 74 0% In the latter group were malnourished The percentage of
malnourished males In the two groups were 140% and 670°/o respe~tlvely
(Ghosh.1990)
In a study from Karnataka the proportion of malnourished glds was
found to be h~gher than that of boys (Khad~ el a1,1996) The prevalence of anemla
amongst glrls ranged from 18 0% In Madras to 95 0% In Calcutta (Mukheqee,l991) On
the other hand some stud~es have shown that there was no nutnt~onal blas agalnst the
glrls and that the~r food intake was comparable, and In some places even better than
that of boys (Brahniam ef a1,1988 Rao,1989, Subrahmanyam and Rao 1995)
chlldren remaln deprived of adequate access to baslc health care A recent
analYSls of med~cal contact rates across age and sex groups, revealed that female