There has been a drastic decline in the child sex ratio (number of females per 1000 males between ages 0 and 4) in India and many of its states. This study aimed to examine if prenatal factors, such as change in sex ratio at birth, or postnatal factors, such as change in relative mortality of females and males, contribute to this more by analysing the dynamics of the child sex ratio. Changes in the child sex ratio during 2001–2011 were decomposed into a ‘fertility’ component attributable to prenatal sex selection and a ‘mortality’ component attributable to sex differentials in postnatal survival at the country as well as the state level. Between the prenatal factor and the postnatal factor, the contribution of the latter to the declining child sex ratio has been greater than the former in India as a whole and in most of the states. By focusing on both prenatal and postnatal factors, the imbalance in the child sex ratio in the country can be reduced to a large extent.

印度及其许多州的儿童性别比例（每 1000 名 0 至 4 岁男性的女性人数）急剧下降。本研究旨在通过分析儿童性别比的动态，检查产前因素（例如出生时性别比的变化）或产后因素（例如女性和男性相对死亡率的变化）是否更有助于这一点。2001-2011 年期间儿童性别比的变化被分解为可归因于产前性别选择的“生育率”部分和归因于国家和州一级产后生存性别差异的“死亡率”部分。在产前因素和产后因素之间，后者对儿童性别比下降的贡献在整个印度和大多数州都大于前者。