The authors have produced the Atlas of Women and Men in India, using material from the 1991 Census, mainly at district level. The Atlas may be unacceptable to Indian geographers because it seeks to question the authority of numerical data and of maps, and to Western geographers because this is “mapping before we understand the process”. The authors introduce maps of the sex ratio in India and explore through a map of changes in the sex ratio 1981–91 some numerical, analytical, and ethical problems of such mapping. The Indian feminist activists consulted want the Atlas for advocacy: does this justify its production?
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