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Girls for Sale? Child Sex Ratio and Girls Trafficking in India

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  • Prakash, Nishith

    (Northeastern University)

  • Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))

Abstract

Illegal trafficking of women is a result of their disadvantageous position in the society that is often reflected in increasing preference for son and neglect for daughters. Multiple reports point to India as country confronted with both higher levels of illegal trafficking of girls and abnormal child sex ratios in favor of boys. In this paper we examine if a skewed sex ratio and shortage of girls is associated with their illegal trafficking in India. Using panel data of 29 Indian states from 1980-2011, we find that 100 unit increase in child sex ratio is associated with 0.635% increase in illegal trafficking of girls. We find the association to be heterogeneous by female empowerment, crime against women and party rule in the state. We find that association between child sex ratio and illegal trafficking of girls is stronger and larger in magnitude in states with greater female empowerment. Overall, it appears that the results are driven by both greater reporting and greater incidence of illegal girls trafficking. Contrary to popular belief, the results do not vary differentially by states with larger share of schedule tribe population or states bordering Nepal and Bangladesh. Our results survive variety of robustness checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Prakash, Nishith & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2014. "Girls for Sale? Child Sex Ratio and Girls Trafficking in India," IZA Discussion Papers 8293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8293
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    Cited by:

    1. William R. DI PIETRO, 2015. "Human Trafficking and National Morality," Expert Journal of Economics, Sprint Investify, vol. 3(3), pages 161-166.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    girls trafficking; child sex ratio; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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