________________
Population
is resorted to by the Jaina community and we should not, on this account, assume the excess of males among the Jainas.
Community
With all these factors operating to reduce the number of females, the female wastage in the Jaina community had been considerably low as compared with that in other communities. Table 16 given below shows the female ratio in the first year of life as compared to that at all ages censused in 1931, indicating the comparative wastage of female life from whatever causes.20
Table 16
1
Sikh
Muslim
INDIA
Hindu
Christian
Parsi
Jaina.
Tribal
Females per 1000 males (of population returned by age)
Aged 0-1
2
947
999
1013
1017
1002
981
972
1045
All ages
3
784
904
941
953
952
940
941
1009
21
Variation per cent between Columns
2 & 3
4
- 17.2
9.5
7.1
6.3
5.0
4.2
3.2
3.4
-
J
Further, it is generally recognised that the ratio of females to males increases inversely with social standing among the Hindus.21 This was well illustrated by figures in the former Bombay Presidency (in 1931) where the whole Hindu population was divided up according to education and social status into advanced, intermediate, backward and depressed classes. For the advanced classes, the ratio of women to men was 878 per 1000, for intermediate classes it was 935 per 1000, for the aboriginal tribes it was 956 per 1000, for other backward classes it was 953 per 1000, while for the depressed classes it rose to 982 per 1000 males. The Jainas (excepting Chaturtha, Panchama and Shetwal castes thereof) were put under advanced class in the former Bombay Presidency at that time. It would be interesting to note the ratio of females to males in each of the various castes in the Jaina community and to verify whether the connection that the ratio of females
