While the number of women per 1,000 men in India has touched its highest figure, 940, since 1971 when it was just 930, the corresponding number for girls below six is just the opposite — the lowest since Independence.
Provisional Census data show that the child sex ratio, or the number of girls for every 1,000 boys in the age group 0-6 years, stands at a dismal 914, down from 927 in 2001.
The child sex ratio has been in free fall since 1961, when it stood at 976.
The Census figures show that in 27 states/Union Territories, the child sex ratio has shown a decline over Census 2001, a “matter of grave concern”, according to Census Commissioner C Chandramouli who released the data here with Home Secretary G K Pillai.
The only positive here is that Punjab and Haryana, which continue to have among the lowest child sex ratios at 846 and 830 respectively, have improved, up from 798 and 819 during Census 2001. Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and the Andaman and Nicobar islands are the only other states/UTs that have shown an increase in the child sex ratio.
Besides Punjab and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (899, down from 916), Maharashtra (883, down from 913), Chandigarh (867, down from 845) and J&K (859) have the most worrisome figures.
Though the southern states, Kerala (959), Andhra Pradesh (943), Karnataka (943), and Tamil Nadu (946), all have stronger sex ratios when compared to the national average of 914, they are worse off when compared to 2001.
However, the decadal decline in child sex ratio is less steep from that of the previous decade (1991 to 2001). In 1991, it was 945 and fell to 927 in 2001, a fall of 18 points (1.9%). This time, it has fallen to 914, a fall of 13 points (1.4%).
“Though the fall is a little less steep this time around, it is still a decline. It shows that sex determination continues to be practised robustly and rampantly. As is sex discrimination — girls are given less food, less health care, less education and even less affection. Also, it seems policies for the girl child haven’t done much to improve the situation,” said Ravinder Kaur, professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
That discrimination plays a role in low child sex ratios has been recorded in previous surveys.
For instance, the Sample Registration Survey of the Registrar General of the Census for the year 2003-5 showed that in Punjab, which had a child sex ratio of 798 in the 2001 Census, the infant mortality rate among girls had risen from 52 to 55, whereas it had fallen among boys from 46 to 37.
“This discrimination is obvious. Otherwise, these are not natural sex ratios. There have been studies that show that young girls are not given proper medical care,” said Kirti Singh of AIDWA.
As to the increase in overall sex ratio, 940 in the new Census as compared to 933 a decade ago, Kaur said: “The only reason for that is that life expectancy of women has gone up. This means, that there are more older women in the population that there were 10 years ago but the main concern remains the poor child sex ratio.”
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