Familial Power Relations, Issues of Gender and Son Preference in Rural South India

Sammanfattning: This study deals with the impact of overall processes of societal change on already existing patriarchal structures in Indian society by investigating the phenomenon of son preference and daughter discrimination. In India the natural biological sex ratio of slightly more females than males in the population is reversed, predominantly in the youngest age group. The 2001 Census reveals that the sex ratio in the 0-6 year's group has declined since 1981. What is even more alarming is that child sex ratios have continued to decline in spite of general progress, economically and socially. The family is the most basic and fundamental form of organisation and structuring of social life, it constitutes the most immediate and relevant institutional arrangement to focus upon. The empirical material in this study has been collected during a field stay in rural south India using the qualitative inductive method. Moreover, the study attempts to understand the phenomenon of daughter discrimination from a structural point of view, hence, familial power relations and transformation from a gendered perspective constitutes the theoretical base.