Child sex ratio hits new low

The female girl child is still unwanted and their number has fallen to an all time low since independence, latest census data released today revealed. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Apr 1, 2011, 01:18:11 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Census 2011 had delivered a mixed bag on sex ratio.

Female girl child is still unwanted and their numbers have fallen to all-time low since Independence, but overall female sex ratio has improved, census data released on Thursday showed.

India’s sex ratio has increased from 933 in 2001 to 940 in 2011 census. This means of the total population of 1.21 crore, 51.54% are males and 48.46% are females. Kerala has the highest sex ratio of 1,084 whereas the lowest is in Daman and Diu of 618 females for 1,000 males.

Of the eight states in red on female sex ratio in 2001, only four — J&K, Punjab, Haryana and Sikkim— remain in that net now.

Better access to health facilities for women is said to have helped female sex ratio, especially in the North-East with dramatic improvement in number of women in Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.

For the girl child, the apathy continues. Child sex ratio in 2011 stands at 914 girls, down from 927 girls for 1,000 boys in 2001. Total population of children less than six years of age declined with total population of 158.7 million in 2011 as compared to 163.8 million in 2001 even though India’s population witnessed an increase of over 18%.

“The fall in the girl child population is a matter of concern as population (0-6) 2001-2011 registered minus 3.80% growth with minus 2.42 for males and minus 3.80 for females,” said women and child development minister Krishna Tirath.

What has enthused policy planners is that sex ratio has improved in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, which were the worst states on this parameter in 2001 census.

However, Punjab and Haryana still have the worst child sex ratios in India. The grim news is that rest of the 27 states also show a decline in population of girl child. “Measures of the last 40 years had no impact. There is a need to review the policies...” said home secretary GK Pillai.

The ban on use of ultrasound for sex determination of a child appears to have been defeated by availability of techniques on the internet. “Many states still don’t have apparatus to enforce the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994,” said Kailash Sathyarthi founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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