Sex ratio at birth slightly up, but 11 districts below average in Haryana

Ravinder Saini

Advertisement

Rohtak, July 11

The state witnessed a two-point improvement in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) in the first half of this year compared to last year. The SRB was 914 at the end of 2021, while it has been registered 916 up to June 30 this year.

Fatehabad tops

• Fatehabad topped the tally with the SRB of 987, followed by Jind and Gurugram, with 959 and 942, respectively
• 11 dists record sex ratio at birth less than state average’
• Interestingly, Fatehabad was among the worst three districts in terms of SRB at the end of 2021

Significantly, 11 districts have recorded the SRB of less than the state average and six among these have seen the birth of less than 900 girls against 1,000 boys. Karnal, the Chief Minister’s city, is also one of the districts.

A total of 2,33,435 children were born in the state from January 1 to June 30 and among them, 1,2,1823 were male, while 1,11,612 were female.

Fatehabad topped the tally with the SRB of 987, followed by Jind and Gurugram, with 959 and 942, respectively. Fatehabad was among the worst three districts in terms of the SRB at the end of 2021. It was at the 20th place in the state at that time. In the past six months, it improved 88 points to grab the top position in the tally.

Rohtak topped the tally in 2021, but slipped to seventh position in the first half of the year. Rohtak had registered the highest SRB of 945 last year, while the figure is 929 up to June 30 this year. Similarly, Jind improved 36 points to reach the second position this year. The SRB of Jind was 923 in 2021, while it has risen to 959 in the first half of this year.

Four districts of south Haryana have reported the worst gender ratio. Faridabad is at the bottom with lowest SRB of 879 up to June 30, followed by Mahendragarh and Rewari with the birth of 881 females against 1,000 males. Rewari (883), Karnal (888) and Kurukshetra (894) are other districts which recorded the SRB of less than 900.

Dr Nirpal Chand, Nodal Office (PNDT), Fatehabad, said the improvement was the outcome of public awareness programme run successfully in the district, besides the busting of several rackets involved in pre-natal sex determination test.