India’s birth sex ratio has fallen to 893 girls registered for every 1,000 boys born, much less than the overall child sex ratio of India at 914, latest government data on registration of births shows.
The new data for 2009 records a dip from the 903 girls registered per 1,000 boys in 2007.
“A downfall in sex ratio at birth is due to less reporting of registered births from Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa,” the report said, adding that remarkable improvement in birth registrations was reported from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Nagaland than previous years.
Bihar was the worst performing with a birth sex ratio of 751, followed by Arunachal Pradesh at 806. The prosperous Haryana is third from bottom with a ratio of 853. Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Jharkhand too fared badly.
However, not all poor states showed an anti-girl bias with Madhya Pradesh recording a birth sex ratio of 938. Chhattisgarh and Orissa also had higher birth sex ratio than the national average.
The only state to register more new born girls than boys was Karnataka with a birth sex ratio of 1,011. Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh also did well with a ratio of 985. The three north-eastern states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur had birth sex ratio of about 950.
The data also shows that around 67% of birth registrations take place in cities and just 23% in villages, though 64% of the country’s population lives in rural India. This indicates the inefficacy of the government’s programmes for healthier mother and child in villages through birth registrations.
The new data for 2009 records a dip from the 903 girls registered per 1,000 boys in 2007.
“A downfall in sex ratio at birth is due to less reporting of registered births from Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa,” the report said, adding that remarkable improvement in birth registrations was reported from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Nagaland than previous years.
Bihar was the worst performing with a birth sex ratio of 751, followed by Arunachal Pradesh at 806. The prosperous Haryana is third from bottom with a ratio of 853. Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Jharkhand too fared badly.
However, not all poor states showed an anti-girl bias with Madhya Pradesh recording a birth sex ratio of 938. Chhattisgarh and Orissa also had higher birth sex ratio than the national average.
The only state to register more new born girls than boys was Karnataka with a birth sex ratio of 1,011. Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh also did well with a ratio of 985. The three north-eastern states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur had birth sex ratio of about 950.
The data also shows that around 67% of birth registrations take place in cities and just 23% in villages, though 64% of the country’s population lives in rural India. This indicates the inefficacy of the government’s programmes for healthier mother and child in villages through birth registrations.
Source: HT
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