Haryana’s sex ratio at birth rises to 920 till May - Hindustan Times
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Haryana’s sex ratio at birth rises to 920 till May

By, Chandigarh
Jun 10, 2022 12:52 AM IST

Haryana has managed to improve its sex ratio at birth (SRB) this year till May despite the blows that the flagship ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme received in 2021 when the annual SRB slipped to the lowest point in five years

Haryana has managed to improve its sex ratio at birth (SRB) this year till May despite the blows that the flagship ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme received in 2021 when the annual SRB slipped to the lowest point in five years.

‘Save the girl child’ fight looks like its back on track after setbacks last year when the annual SRB stood at 914 female births per 1,000 males
‘Save the girl child’ fight looks like its back on track after setbacks last year when the annual SRB stood at 914 female births per 1,000 males

The health department data shows that the cumulative SRB of last five months has risen to 920 female births per 1,000 males even as it was 912 in 2020 during the corresponding months.

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Now the eight-point increase in SRB (920) till May in comparison to the same period last year (912) has come as a morale booster to the government teams spearheading this programme while tracking and trapping the touts offering sex selection facilities.

Incidentally, in 2019, when Haryana’s annual SRB at 923 was the highest the state had recorded in at least a decade, that year also, the cumulative SRB till May was 920.

As per official data, in last five months, at least 50 cases have been registered against those violating the PNDT (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act and the MTP (Medical Termination of Pregnancy) Act.

And in the past seven years, beginning May 2015, 1,030 cases (593 PNDT and 437 MTP) have been lodged across Haryana.

The SRB is considered a critical indicator of gender equality. When the annual SRB in 2021 stood at 914 female births per 1,000 males against 922 in 2020, it was for the first time that this programme suffered a setback of this scale after it was launched from Panipat in January 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to Dr Amit Kumar Agrawal, nodal officer ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ and additional principal secretary (to CM), the improvement in the SRB in first five months is an encouraging indicator.

“We have made a good progress in terms of SRB. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar personally monitors this project periodically and has set 950 as the SRB target this year,” Dr Agrawal said.

Almost every month, Haryana registered an alarming dip in the SRB last year. For example, the cumulative SRB till June 2021 had dipped to 911, from 920 in the corresponding period till June 2020. And 906 girls were born per 1,000 boys as per the SRB data collated between January and September 2021.

“In this backdrop, 920 SRB till May is a good news and encouraging. But I am keeping my fingers crossed,” said a key member of the programme, refusing to be named.

Fatehabad leads, rise in annual SRB likely

Fatehabad district, with an SRB of 983 (till May), led the state despite 858 SRB during the same period last year. Jind district has recorded 956 SRB against 917 last year, followed by Sirsa 952 (914 in 2021).

The SRB of Bhiwani stood at 946, Gurugram 943, Rohtak 939, Palwal 935, Nuh 929, Ambala 922, Panipat 920, Yamunanagar 919, Panchkula 917, Hisar 912, Charkhi Dadri 907, Sonepat 906, Kaithal 903, Karnal 894, Mahendergarh and Faridabad 889 each, Kurukshetra 888, Rewari 885, and Jhajjar 881.

The SRB of 16 districts is above 900. Of the total 1,97,350 births registered till May this year, 1,02,811 were males and 94,539 females – 8,272 less female births in comparison to males in the first five months.

Experts say if this trend continues, Haryana’s annual SRB in 2022 is likely to cross 920. The state had registered 914 female births per 1,000 males in 2021 and in 2020 the annual SRB was 922 despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The annual SRB of the state was 923 in 2019, the highest Haryana had recorded in at least a decade. From 833 in 2011, the annual SRB of the state had improved to 876 in 2015 and it rose to 900 in 2016 while it remained at 914 in 2017 and 2018 from where it jumped to 923 in 2019, the magic figure the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ team hopes to breach this year.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Pawan Sharma, based in Chandigarh, is Assistant Editor in HT and presently writes on Haryana's politics and governance. During different stints over the past two decades, he covered Punjab extensively for 10 years and before that judiciary and Himachal Pradesh with focus on high-impact news breaking and investigative journalism.

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