Gender ratio goes up; Fatehabad tops

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 28

Encouraging trends are being witnessed in gender ratio this year, as 11 out of 21 districts of the state have sex ratio at birth (SRB) of more than 900 girls per 1000 males from January to May.

As per the data available with the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ (B3P) cell, Fatehabad district tops in the state with SRB of 942.

Of 6,654 children born in Fatehabad district from January to May 2016, 3,426 were male and 3,228 female.

Sirsa stood second with SRB of 941. Of the 9,083 children born here 4,680 were males and 4,403 females.

Other districts with sex ratio at birth of more than 900 include Kaithal (940), Ambala (929), Karnal (908), Yamunanagar (908), Hisar (906), Sonepat (905), Mewat (904), Panchkula (902) and Faridabad (900).

Dr Yogender Malik, advisor to the CM for ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, said the state government followed a multi-pronged strategy, including strict implementation of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 and Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, better health and education facilities for girls and strengthening of anganwadis.

On the contrary, Mahindergarh district stands at the bottom of the table with sex ratio of 808 girls per 1000 boys. Of 5,483 children born in the district from January to May 2016, 3,032 were males and 2,451 females.

Other districts with SRB below 900 from bottom to top include Kurukshetra (836), Rewari (860), Bhiwani (861), Jhajjar (871), Rohtak (872), Jind (872), Panipat (880), Gurgaon (884) and Palwal (895).

The overall sex ratio at birth in Haryana for children born between January to May stands at 894. This shows some improvement, as the sex ratio in Haryana as per 2011 Census was 877 girls against 1000 boys.

Fatehabad, which stood at number 2 with sex ratio of 903 in 2011 has come to top position with SRB of 942.

Similarly, Sirsa jumped to second position (SRB of 941) from fourth position in 2011 (sex ratio of 896).

On the contrary, Mewat which had sex ratio of 906 as per 2011 Census slipped to 9th position with SRB of 904, primarily due to better performance by other districts.

Similarly, Mahendergarh and Kurukshetra district slipped to bottom two positions with SRB of 808 and 836, respectively, though during 2011 Census they showed better than state average sex ratio 894 and 888, respectively.

Jind shows improvement

Jind: Sex ratio at birth seems to be improving in the district since March this year.

The SRB jumped from 845 in April 2016 to 906 in May. Gender ratio has also improved in 10 villages of the district with SRB of 500 in January.