Child sex ratio shows improvement in J-K

Dinesh Manhotra

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 22

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi today officially launching the nationwide Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, Jammu and Kashmir has a reason to rejoice as the state has registered a considerable growth in the child sex ratio in the last few years.

From a dismal 859 girls per 1,000 boys in 2011, the child sex ratio in the state increased to 930 girls per 1,000 boys in December 2014.

“The situation has improved during the last three years as we have launched a rigorous campaign to save the girl child,” said Dr Yashpal Sharma, mission director of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Jammu and Kashmir.

Dr Sharma along with the then Minister for Health Sham Lal Sharma had launched an aggressive drive to save the girl child after the 2011 Census report showed a drastic reduction in the child sex ratio in Jammu and Kashmir since 2001.

The state had witnessed the single largest decline in sex ratio in the country as compared to the 2001 Census figures.

While in 2001, the number of girls per 1,000 boys (aged between 0-6) in J&K stood at 941, the 2011 Census found that over a decade it had plummeted to 859.

No other state was even remotely close to J&K’s dismal record in the 2011. Maharashtra was second in the list.

The child sex ratio had given sleepless nights to the state Health Department as it is the most realistic indicator of trends in female foeticide and continuing discrimination against the girl child.

“The aggressive campaign launched by the state government has yielded good results in many parts of the state,” said Dr Sharma, adding, “Mechanism was also strengthened to strictly implement the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostics Techniques Act”.

He said the Health Department was holding block-wise monthly meetings every month in the last three years to prepare data of newborns.

Dr Sharma further said 2013 was dedicated to daughters and during the year a massive campaign was launched to save the girl child.

Director Health Services, Jammu, Dr BS Pathania told The Tribune that the department has taken aggressive initiatives to act against ultrasound centres which were found involved in conducting illegal tests.