PM urges state CMs to address falling girl to boy ratio

The poor progress made by states in stemming the declining sex ratio (of the number of girls in the 0-6 age group for every 1,000 boys) in the country has prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to write to the 28 state chief ministers on the issue.

The recent census showed a decline in states which had earlier not reported one. This had prompted a high-level meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office this June, where one of the decisions was to take up the matter with CMs of states showing poor figures.

The PM, sources said, has urged CMs to address the issue without delay and also send him feedback on their plans to tackle the problem.

The latest census data, as well as the annual health surveys at the district level and other sample surveys, show not much improvement in states which were earlier showing a poor sex ratio. States showing among the worst drops include the Jammu and Kashmir of Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, as well as eastern states such as Bihar and West Bengal where such trends were not reported before.

However, Punjab and Haryana, where the ratio was low even during the previous census, have shown a slight improvement.

The poor sex ratio has also contributed to a persistent decline in child survival rates. The ratio fell to 914 in this census, compared to 927 in the previous one, 10 years earlier. The biggest drop was in Jammu and Kashmir, where it came down from 941 in 2001 to 859 in 2011. While Rajasthan showed a drop from 909 in 2001 to 883 in 2011, Andhra Pradesh had an 18-point drop from 961 to 943. West Bengal had a 10-point drop.

Activists have said a 10-point drop in Bengal, which has been protective towards girl children, is as good as a 30-point drop in Haryana. One of them, Sabu George, says the desired outcomes cannot be achieved without enforcement of the law penalising doctors who help in sex selection and sex-selective abortions.