The killing of the girl child, including the unborn, continues unchecked, with the 2011 census figures showing 31 lakh girls below the age of six going missing across the country.

States which had shown little discrimination against the girl child in the 2001 census have recorded a steep decline in the female sex ratio.
Across the country, it has declined from 927 females to 1,000 males in 2001 to 914 females to 1,000 males in 2011, which was described as a “matter of grave concern” by census commissioner C. Chandra-mouli.
The low female sex ratios seen in Harayana and Punjab in 2001 now extends to the Northeast, as well as states in southern and central India with large tribal populations, which include Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
However, Punjab and Haryana, which witnessed some government action against sex determi-nation tests in the past 10 years, appear to have reversed the trend for now, but these two states still remain at the bottom of the list. In Haryana, the female sex ratio has risen from 819 in the earlier census to 830; while in Punjab it has gone up from 798 to 846. It has also gone up in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The highest ratio was reported in Mizoram (971 females to 1,000 males) and Meghalaya (970).
It is a grim story in the other 27 states and Union territories. The figures speak for themselves. In Jammu and Kashmir, the female sex ratio has dropped significantly in the past decade — from 941 to 858. In Uttarakhand, it is down from 908 to 886. The fall in Delhi is from 868 to 866; in Rajasthan from 909 to 883; in Uttar Pradesh from 916 to 899; in Bihar 942 to 933; and even in Kerala, despite its high literacy level, down from 960 to 959.
The biggest drops have been in Maharashtra, where the female sex ratio has gone down from 913 to 883; and in Andhra Pradesh from 961 to 943; while in Karnataka it has fallen from 946 to 943.
In the Northeast, where the status of women is believed to be relatively better, the trend si no different. In Manipur, the drop in the female sex ratio is from 957 to 934, while in Nagaland it has fallen from 964 to 944. In West Bengal, it has come down from 960 to 950.
Haryana’s Jhajjar (774 females to 1,000 males) and Mahendragarh (778 females) districts have the lowest sex ratio; while Lahul and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh have the highest sex ratio (1,013 females).
Activist George Sabu, who has been working in this field for the past 25 years, notes that this declining ratio indicates the extent to which mobile ultrasound machines have made inroads across the country. “Ten years ago female foeticide was restricted to Haryana and Punjab because sex determination tests began there. Today, with the law not being implemented, they have spread to every corner of the country,” he said.
Minister of state for women and child development Krishna Tirath expressed concern over the fall in the girl child population, saying she planned to take up the matter with different state governments.
Gauri Chaudhury, who heads Action India, is not surprised. “The Sex Determination Act in the states is implemented by the chief medical officers. But which doctor is going to take action against another doctor, especially when they have emerged as one of the most powerful lobbies in the country?”