Alarmed by the declining child sex ratio (CSR) in the country, the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) has called a meeting of the concerned Central ministries on Friday to take stock of the situation. The meeting, to be chaired by the principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr T.K.A.Nair, will discuss how this problem can be dealt with “on a war-footing” and the alarming trend arrested.
As per the latest data with the government, the child sex ratio (CSR) in 2011 has registered an all-time low figure of 914 girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group. In 2001, the CSR was 927 girls per 1,000 boys. It means that in absolute terms, there has been a further decline of 13 (927 minus 914) in terms of girls per 1,000 boys.
This is certainly not good news for a country which has been trying to check this declining trend in CSR through policies, programmes and laws for several years now, and yet, the CSR continues its downward spiral, a “steep and unabated one” since 1961.
As per the 2011 figures, it’s Jammu and Kashmir which has the worst child sex ratio in the country with just 859 girls in the 0-6 age group per 1,000 boys. The state, in fact, has a high gender differential in infant mortality rate too with it being as high as 10 points in 2009.
States such as Punjab and Haryana, which are notorious for female foeticide, are second and third on the CSR this list with the former recording just 846 girls per 1,000 boys and Haryana merely 830.
In 1961, the child sex ratio (for population in the 0-6 age group) was 976 girls per 1,000 boys. In 2011, over a period of five decades, it has dipped further to merely 914 girls per 1,000 boys. This, despite the policies and programmes that successive governments at the Centre and in the states have followed to arrest this trend.
As per data collated for Friday’s meeting, over the last decade, the CSR has declined in 22 states and five Union Territories. Among the states/UTS that have registered the sharpest decline are Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland. What is cause for concern is also the fact that even the north-eastern states, except for Mizoram, have shown a declining trend. An official noted that the overall steep decline in CSR indicates that discrimination against the girl child continues in India. Besides, the data also shows that the problems of female foeticide through sex selective abortions and neglect of the girl child are spread across nearly all states.