1 “(25 +)
2 Umballa District, among Hindoos, non-agricultural, there are 147,236
3 males to 117,898 females ; in Ferozepoor 41,844 males to 25,626
4 females ; in Lahore 67,531 to 41,680; in Sealkote 96,765 to 66,068 ; in
5 Rawul: Pindee' 34,364 to 23,120 ; in Peshawur 34,446 to 11,545 ; in Kohat
6 3,993 to 1,364. The disproportion which is most apparent in the above
7 Districts may be readily accounted for by the presence of a Military
8 Force. The local Officers generally do not appear to consider that the
9 people evinced any disinclination to return the numbers of their women.
10 Such a feeling would have existed, if any where, among the Mahomedans ;
11 but on the contrary, among them the proportions.are more equal than
12 among the Hindoos, There must in all probability be some*real defici-
13 ency of females. In all countries there isa preponderance of male over
14 female births. (See paras. 536 and 537 of North-Western Provinces Census
15 Report). But among European people, female life, especially in youth,
16 appears to be better preserved than male life. The case is reversed in
17 Tndia ; in the Punjab, as in the North-Western Provinces, there isa care-
18 lessness in regard to infant female life, especially among the Hindoos ;
19 and among agricultural Hindoos the women are devoted to labor un-
20 suited to their sex. Female infanticide aleo is known more or less to
21 have prevailed in the Punjab. It may be added, too, that judicial ex-
22 perience would, seem to show, that'in many parts of the Punjab, the con-
23 stant disputes for the possession of women may arise not only from
24 social immorality, but in part also from some slight disproportion of
25 the sexes,
26 26. The mean average of persons per house is 453, which coincides
27 within a fraction with the corresponding average in the North-Western
28 Provinces, ¥tz. 4°83, which latter average was shown by para. 580 of the
29 North-Western Provinces Census Report to agree with the statistical
30 results of Europe. The number of persons in one house is in England
31 considered to be of much moral and social significance. But over-crowd-
32 ing in this respect does not appear to exist at least in this part
33 ‘of India, except perhaps in some of the cities, especially in quarters
34 occupied by Cashmeerees. The average does not materially fluctuate in
35 the several Punjab Districts ; it ranges from 3:94 in Kangra and 3:97 in
36 Lahore to 552 in Kohat. It might have been supposed that the
37 average would be lower in rich Districts and higher in poor ones,
38 but no such fact is deducible from the Census Returns. “ House,” in
39 India, corresponds to “ family,” and the number of persons to a family
40 E