Big difference in MP’S child sex ratio data raises questions
Considerable difference in the district-level child sex ratio (CSR) figures from provisional to the final data of Census 2011 is raising questions, particularly among the NGOs working on the issue.
Considerable difference in the district-level child sex ratio (CSR) figures from provisional to the final data of Census 2011 is raising questions, particularly among the NGOs working on the issue.
The difference on the plus side, indicating improvement in CSR, has been noticed more in the figures for urban areas in the state.
While the provisional figures of Census were released in March-end in 2011, the final figures for the state were released in June this year.
An in- depth look into the comparative figures shows that overall in the state, an improvement of six points was reported from the provisional figures of child sex ratio (912) to the final figure (918).
The same difference has been recorded at state-level for rural and urban areas, where the CSR has gone up from 917 to 923 and from 895 to 901 respectively.
However, the difference in figures is quite erratic at district level, especially in the urban areas where an improvement of 7 to 28 points in CSR has been recorded in 22 districts.
In rural areas too, 22 districts have shown a considerable improvement between provisional and final figures of CSR, but the range of improvement is lower -- between 7 and 16 points.
Some districts have also shown a dip in the CSR final figure compared to the provisional figures, but the number of districts is very few.
In urban areas, five districts have shown a dip of 1 to 14 points, while in rural areas only three districts have recorded a low of 1 to 5 points.
NGOs have said that such significant difference in the CSR figures raises some doubt particularly as major improvement has been recorded in most of the cases.
“If there had been a balance of dips and improvements in figures, it would have been more acceptable, but only positive trend looks somewhat doubtful. We wonder whether there was some pressure working in the matter,” Rolly of NGO Vikas Samvad told HT.
The commissioner (census) of Madhya Pradesh, Sachin Sinha, however, ruled out any such discrepancy.
He said the figure difference is not significant and the provisional figures are not to be considered once the final figures are released.
The commissioner explained that the provisional figures are compiled on summary basis by the enumerators, while the entire data is scanned for the final figures and thus, the difference.
“Anyway, only the final figures are considered for all planning and policy matters and thus, it is not an issue,” Sinha said.