Annual data to be used for girl child scheme

For its flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme, the government will now use the annual Sex Ratio at Birth data for a quick estimation of the status of the girl child in various districts, an official said on Friday.

The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry uses the Child Sex Ratio currently.

"The next Child Sex Ratio is scheduled for 2021 and considering the recent fall of girl child ratio since 1961, we do not have the luxury to wait so long.

"So we have shifted to Sex Ratio at Birth which is calculated annually and can be a fair indicator of the reality," WCD Ministry Secretary Rakesh Srivastava said at a national conference organised by the ministry on the BBBP scheme.

The Ministry will take necessary action to stop the further falling of the Child Sex Ratio. "We need to take some drastic steps to control it. If we can improve the Sex Ratio at Birth then it will automatically reflect in Child Sex Ratio during the 2021 Census," he added.

The Ministry refuted a recent report by Niti Aayog which said there has been a substantial drop of 10 points or more for Sex Ratio at Birth in 17 out of 21 states from 2012-14 (base year) to 2013-15 (reference year).

"Our data is based on HMIS data of Health Ministry for 161 BBBP districts which indicate the time period between April-March 2015-16 and 2016-17 which shows visible improvement in Sex Ratio at Birth in 104 districts and the rest are also improving," Joint Secretary K. Moses Chalai told IANS.

BBBP which is a convergent effort of the Ministries of WCD, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development and was initially launched in 161 districts which were low on Child Sex Ratio.

It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 in Haryana and was expanded nationwide in March.

--IANS

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