January to June: Sex ratio at birth in Haryana slips to six-year low
According to official data, the 906 sex ratio at birth recorded till June has registered 10 points fall in comparison to the same period in 2022 when it stood at 916 in Haryana. This dip in the SRB numbers is contrary to previous years trends when it had steadily improved during the same period from 870 in 2015 to 891 in 2016, 910 in 2017, 916 in 2018, 918 in 2019, 917 in 2020, and 911 in 2021.
Haryana government’s showpiece programme to stop female foeticide has suffered a major blow with the January to June cumulative sex ratio at birth (SRB) sliding to 906 female births per 1,000 males, a development that is being seen as a wake-up call for the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
What has also set the alarm bells ringing in the health department, being headed by senior Cabinet minister Anil Vij, is the fact that this is the lowest-ever half yearly SRB recorded after 2016 in Haryana.
According to official data, the 906 SRB recorded till June has registered 10 points fall in comparison to the same period in 2022 when it stood at 916. This dip in the SRB numbers is contrary to previous years trends when it had steadily improved during the same period from 870 in 2015 to 891 in 2016, 910 in 2017, 916 in 2018, 918 in 2019, 917 in 2020, and 911 in 2021.
The annual SRB of Haryana had also shown steady improvement after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme on January 22, 2015, from Panipat to arrest the declining sex ratio.
For example, the annual SRB of Haryana which stood at 876 in 2015, rose to 900 in 2016, 914 in 2017-2018, 923 in 2019, 922 in 2020. In 2021, the annual SRB came down to 914 and in 2022 it rose to 917.
Experts associated with the ‘Save the girl child’ programme say since last year political as well as administrative monitoring has been on the decline, leading to slackness at different levels. They said in the absence of monitoring and accountability the practice of sex selection before birth has become prevalent despite raids being conducted within and outside Haryana to bust sex determination rackets involving touts targeting pregnant women from Haryana.
Asked about the causes at the root of dip in the SRB, Dr Govind Gupta, director health services, pre-natal diagnostic techniques (PNDT), said: “I am not in a position to shed light on this issue right now as I am travelling.”
Disturbing data
Experts monitoring the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme in Haryana say that keeping in view the progress achieved in previous years, this year’s mid-year SRB data is “disturbing as well as baffling.”
“In 2023, we may not even reach the SRB figure of last year as the mid-year SRB is very low,” said an expert, who is involved in this programme from the beginning, pointing out that this slide in the SRB is puzzling.
“There are genuine problems also related to delays and mismatches in birth data compilation in some districts. However, it is high time that those holding positions of authority wield the stick before it is too late. Otherwise, there are chances that we may fritter away all the gains of last seven years hard work,” the expert said.
As per civil registration system data up to June 2023, of the total 22 districts, the SRB of eight districts, including seven districts of the National Capital Region (NCR), went below 900 till June.
The analysis of the data indicates that January to June SRB of 10 districts (Jind, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Ambala, Jhajjar, Panchkula, Faridabad, Mahendergarh) improved in comparison to same months last year. And the SRB of 12 districts (Sirsa, Fatehabad, Nuh, Palwal, Hisar, Bhiwani, Kaithal, Sonepat, Gurugram, Rohtak, Karnal, Charkhi Dadri) went down drastically in comparison to corresponding months last year.
The indications about Haryana’s save the girl child programme heading towards rough patch began emerging in 2021 when the state had recorded 914 female births per 1,000 males, registering eight points fall in the annual SRB over 2020.
Also, the annual SRB of five Haryana districts in 2022 had slipped below 900 females per 1,000 males for the first time in six years.
Jind on top, Gurugram fourth from bottom
Jind topped the district wise SRB with 961, Yamunanagar’s SRB stood at (933), Panipat (932), Sirsa (929), Kurukshetra (928), Fatehabad (926), Rewari (923), Ambala (922), Jhajjar (919), Panchkula (914), Nuh (910), Palwal (909), Hisar (908), Faridabad (904), Bhiwani (897), Kaithal (889), Mahendergarh (888), Sonepat (885), Gurugram (880), Rohtak (874), Karnal (874), and Charkhi Dadri (868))
According to Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Gurugram, where the half-yearly SRB has registered 62 points fall in comparison to same period last year (880 against 942 last year till June), delayed registration of births could be one of the reasons.
“We have been conducting raids...We are looking into the causes behind this dip and analysing the total registration of births. There has been a drastic change (in registration of births) in the last two months when SRB slipped below 900. We are evaluating it,” Dr Yadav said.
Bhiwani is another district where the SRB till June came down to 897 from 938 recorded during the same period last year.
An official, refusing to be identified, said Bhiwani was a curious case where in first five months the SRB was much lower and in June it shot up. “How is this possible? It is intriguing...What explains this unusual rise in SRB data of Bhiwani. In five months Bhiwani’s average SRB was 880 and in June it went further up,” he said.
Dr Raghuvir Shandilya, CMO, Bhiwani, said that the SRB can neither fall abruptly nor it can go up in a short period. “Undoubtedly, there is a downfall in the SRB (of Bhiwani). We have been conducting raids successfully and chasing anti-social elements involved in gender determination tests. We are dealing with this matter,” said Dr Shandilya, adding that teams are proactively working to catch touts.