Girl child mortality on the rise: study

In some states with the lowest sex ratio, death of the girl child seems to be increasing, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Feb 11, 2007, 17:33:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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If you thought clamour over falling sex ratio had any impact, the new data released by census, would prove you wrong. Instead, in some states with lowest sex ratio, death of girl child seems to be on the rise.

The recently released Sample Registration Survey of the Registrar General of the Census for the years 2003-05 states that the infant mortality rate of girl child is about 61 for 1,000 live births as compared to 56 for boys. About 68 lakh people in the country are covered in this annual survey.

A Women and Child Development ministry official, who had analysed the data, said the mortality rate for the girl child has hovered around 60 for past few years, more on account on better performing southern states like Kerala, with girl mortality rate of just 12 and north-eastern states, with a rate between 16-20.

The concern is the rising infant mortality rate for the girl child in states with skewed sex ratio. Take for example, Haryana, with a sex ratio of 861 girls for 1,000 boys (as per 2001 census), the infant mortality rate has risen from 65 in 2003 to 70 in 2005 for 1,000 live births. Incidentally, the infant mortality rate for boys in Haryana has fallen from 54 in 2003 to 51 in 2005.

Similarly, Punjab, with sex ratio of 876 girls for 1,000 boys, the infant mortality rate for the girl child has risen from 52 to 55, whereas for boys it has fallen from 46 to 37. Delhi, with the lowest sex ratio in the country of 821, is no different. Here, infant mortality rate of girl child has risen from 29 to 37.

Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research, says the trend clearly demonstrates where the girl child is heading for --- disaster. “In these states many of the girls are killed in the womb itself. Now, these figures show that their chances of survival after birth is lesser than the boys,” she said.

The survey reveals that rich and more education urban parts of these states are to be blamed for the figures. Infant mortality rate of girl child in urban Haryana was registered as high as 67 in 2004-05 as compared to 30 for boys. Punjab is slightly better with the mortality rate for girls at 46 for 1,000 live births as compared to 32 for boys. In Delhi, the infant mortality for girls is slightly higher than that for the boys.

Compare the scenario with rural parts of these states. In rural Haryana, the infant mortality rate for girl is 69 as compared to 63 for the boys. Rural parts of Punjab witnessed 51 deaths of girls as against 47 for boys.

Other states, with infant mortality rate higher for girl child are Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Terming the Census figures as a ‘serious reflection’ on the failed political strategies of the government, Kumari says, “the political parties don’t care for the child as they cannot vote”. WCD ministry officials, however, blamed the states governments for failing to enforce laws to check infanticide and control infant mortality rate in these states. “We need to change the mindset of people against the girl child which we have failed to do so far,” a senior WCD official told HT.

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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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