Panel asks WCD to reverse declining child sex ratio

A Parliamentary Panel today advised the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD)to put more energy and resources to reverse the trend of declining child sex ratio (CSR) in the country.
"The steadily declining CSR in the country has reached emergency proportions and urgent actions must be taken to alleviate the crisis," the Committee headed by Health Minister J P Nadda said.
It observed that this decline has taken place despite the best efforts by the WCD ministry in checking this trend.
There has been constant decline in CSR over the last four to five census and particularly a steep decline in the report of 2011, which registered a fall from 927 girls per 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years to 918 per 1000 boys.

According to WCD officials, the phenomenon has spread to areas which were not known for disparity in CSR including tribal areas and eastern states. The trend was particularly acute in more developed areas of the country including metropolitan cities.
The Committee also expressed concern over the decrease in budgetary allocation for women and child welfare schemes and asked the Finance Ministry to provide Rs 1,500 crore to the WCD Ministry for smooth functioning of the schemes.

"The committee is dismayed to note that there has been a substantial decrease in the budgetary allocation in child welfare and women related schemes. The Committee recommends Ministry of Finance to make Rs 1,500 crore as promised by the Finance Minister before Parliament at the earliest lest the schemes of the department suffer," it said.

The funds allocated to the WCD Ministry for the current year has been reduced by almost 50 per cent as compared to previous year. The 2015-16 allocation of funds has been reduced to Rs 10,287 crore from last year's 21,000 crore.
However, the Finance Minister in his budget speech had announced extra resources of around Rs 1,500 crore.
Noting that the funds allocated under major schemes like National Nutrition Mission and One Stop Crisis Centre have not been utilised to the fullest extent, the Committee said that it needs to be checked and a status note on this be furnished.