Gurgaon’s sex ratio crosses 900 mark for first time in seven years

The district administration said the credit for the achievement goes to the team of officials who conducted frequent raids to stop sex determination and also conducted campaigns to spread awareness about the girl child.

For the first time in the last seven years, Gurgaon crossed the 900 mark in the sex ratio index of 2017.

Many districts of Haryana participated in ‘Beti Padhao Beti Bachao’ project in 2016 as the state has always had a low sex ratio. (Rishikesh Choudhary/HT File Photo)

This is viewed an important milestone as the state of Haryana has one of the poorest female to male ratio in the country. Maintaining a healthy sex ratio has been a challenge for the district administration and, in the past three years, multiple searches were conducted in various diagnostic centres where the sex determination of a foetus is done illegally.

The average sex ratio at birth in the district touched 903.58 in 2017, up from 883.84 in 2016.

After the health department report came out, the district administration said the credit for the achievement goes to the team of officials who conducted frequent raids to stop sex determination and also conducted campaigns to spread awareness about the girl child.

The department is involved in protecting the girl child in the district include health department, women and child welfare, police and district administration.

“We participated in ‘Beti Padhao Beti Bachao’ in 2016. The project was started in 100 districts of the country and a number of Haryana districts were part of the campaign as the state has always had a low sex ratio. We formed teams to collect information about people who conduct illegal sex determination tests and took stern action against people those involved in the illegal practice. That helped us improve the sex ratio in Gurgaon considerably,” Vinay Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner, Gurgaon, said.

Both Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, and Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, were strengthened in the district.

“We conducted several searches in Gurgaon, Delhi and Rajasthan as the issue is not limited to the district alone. In 2014, the sex ratio was 843.24 girls for 1,000 boys. We conducted awareness campaign to change the mindset of the people towards the girl child,” he said.

The PNDT team has conducted 28 raids in the last two years alone and more than 60 people were arrested after these searches. Investigation into several cases are still on. “Every week we have been holding review meetings and that, too, made a difference,” BK Rajora, chief medical officer, Civil Hospital, Gurgaon, said.

Year-----sex ratio of Gurgaon

2010-----841

2011---849.6

2012---841

2013----852

2014----843.24

2015----875.51

2016----883.84

2017---903.58