Mohali’s love lost for the girl child, slips by 17 points

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 4

Mohali has lost love for the girl child while Fatehgarh Sahib has recorded the best preference for the fairer sex in the state, reveals the latest data of sex ratio at birth (SRB), compiled by the Punjab Department of Health and Family Welfare.

While Mohali’s child sex ratio has dipped drastically by 17 points in the last year to reach 880 girls aged between 0 and 6 years per 1,000 boys in 2016, against 897 in 2015, Fatehgarh Sahib has topped in Punjab by giving birth to the highest-ever 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 2016. This phenomenal rise in the preference for the girl child was 64 points up than 881 girls for every 1,000 boys in Fatehgarh Sahib in 2015.

With this, Fatehgarh Sahib’s child sex ratio was 57 points more than the state’s average of 888 while Mohali slipped below the state average by eight points. In 2016, Punjab’s preference for the girl child improved by five points as compared to 883 in 2015.

Even as Punjab had powered the "country’s maiden improvement" in the child sex ratio, indicating a growing preference for the girl child by recording the maximum 126 points in the past decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had desired that the state, which was otherwise notorious for disproportionate preference for sons, should make rigorous efforts to ensure effective implementation of the Centre’s flagship Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme.

In the latest round of the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16), Punjab had recorded 860 girls aged between 0 and 6 years per 1,000 boys in 2015, against only 734 in 2005-06, the last survey period.

The sex ratio of the total population in the state had increased from 882 in 2005-06 to 905 in 2015-16.

However, the figures of the Civil Registration System of the Department of Health and Family Welfare (PNDT Cell) indicated further improvement in the state’s sex ratio at birth by recording 888 girls per 1,000 boys in 2016, against 883 in 2015.

Raising the issue at a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, in New Delhi recently, the Prime Minister had asserted that the state would have to make rigorous efforts to ensure effective implementation of the BBBP scheme. Of the 100 districts selected under the BBBP scheme across the country in Phase I, 11 districts are from Punjab.

The sex ratio in these districts for 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15 reflects excellent improvement. Mansa registered 925 girls per 1,000 boys in 2015-16, against 857 in 2014-15.

While Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts also showed good progress, the sex ratio declined in Mohali, Barnala, Sangrur, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur and Muktsar districts.

Acting swiftly to fulfil the Prime Minister’s desire, Capt Amarinder Singh sought a report on the progress of the BBBP scheme in the state from the Chief Secretary, Karan Avtar Singh.

Taking up the issue, Additional Chief Secretary, Social Security, Women and Child Development, SK Sandhu, reviewed the progress of the BBBP scheme and sent a detailed report to the CS.

In his report, Sandhu said Fatehgarh Sahib district had registered an excellent progress in the sex ratio at birth with an increase of 64 points in 2016 as compared to 2015. While Barnala, Sangrur, Muktsar and Ferzepur districts had witnessed an increase, Amritsar, too, had shown steady progress in the sex ratio.

For effective implementation of the BBBP scheme, in convergence with the Health Department, Sandhu reported that adequate measures had been undertaken for enforcement of the PNDT Act in the state, where 1,494 facilities had been registered. So far, a total of 106 registrations were cancelled and 841 were suspended after 1,298 inspections were conducted by the district authorities at such centres.

Besides several rounds of meetings of the District Task Force and training programmes for gender sensitisation, digital boards to map the sex ratio of the area were installed at various locations and mobile exhibition vans were manoeuvred across the state to disseminate the message of the BBBP scheme.

“The state of Punjab is committed to ensuring the effective implementation of the BBBP scheme,” Sandhu asserted.

CM to send report to PM

The Chief Minister will send a report to the Prime Minister to apprise him of the implementation of the BBBP scheme in Punjab and reiterate the state’s resolve to ensuring serious implementation of the Centre’s flagship programme by further improving the sex ratio.

Difference

There is a difference of 28 points between the state’s sex ratio figures of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the Civil Registration System (CRS). Differentiating between the two, Additional Chief Secretary SK Sandhu said it was due to the fact that the NFHS conducted its round of survey after a gap of 5-10 years whereas the CRS recorded every live birth and took it into account while compiling the figures on a regular basis.