Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Sees The Highest Decline In Sex-Ratio As India's Figures Continue To Plummet

Days after the Women and Child Development Ministry (WCDM) celebrated the National Girl Child Day, it came up with a report which exposed that the celebrations like this are just lip service and nothing more. The Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) report shows the despite a slew of schemes launched across India, the sex ratio has declined both collectively as a country and individually in states.

For example, India had a sex-ratio at the birth of 903 girls per 1000 boys in 2007 and within less than a decade it has declined to 877 girls per 1000 boys which indeed is abysmal. Another shocker was the performances of states from the southern India which are otherwise considered progressive and more welcoming for the girl child in every respect.

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Since 2007, when the sex ratio was at 903 girls per 1000 boys, India has seen a continuous decline barring the years 2008 (904) and 2011 (909) when the sex ratio witnessed an increase from the previous year, otherwise, in all the subsequent years, the sex ratio has seen a decline.

From 903 in 2007, it saw a marginal improvement in 2008 (904), but in 2009 (898), 2010 (857), a massive slump was recorded. The situation improved in 2011 (909) and 2012 (908), but from 2013 (898) onwards, the sex ratio saw a decline through 2014 (887), 2015 (881), and 2016 (877).

The Southern Shocker

The southern states of India are often hailed as progressive and more accommodating especially for girl child and women. But the latest report says otherwise and indicate the South has gone further south to its earlier avatar of being progressive. Barring Kerala, the only state which has seen continuous rise in sex ratio in last one decade (2007 (944)-2016 (954) with a couple of exceptions, all other southern states have seen a sharp decline in sex ratio. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have performed badly in particular.

For example, Karnataka has declined from a spectacular 1004 girls per 1000 boys in 2007 to 896 girls for 1000 boys in 2016 which puts alot questions forward. Tamil Nadu had a sex ratio of 935 girls in 2007 and now the ratio has declined to 840 per 1000 boys in 2016.

Andhra Pradesh had 974 girls per 1000 boys in 2007 and now it stands worst at 806 in the country jointly along with Rajasthan (806).

Telangana since its formation in 2013 has seen a decline. In 2013, it stood at 954 girls per 1000 boys and in 2016, it recorded 881 girls per 1000 boys.

Otherwise notorious Punjab and Haryana show better signs

Both Haryana and Punjab are notorious for having sex-ratio at worst, but the data shows that things have changed for good in both cousin states. Haryana, in particular, has shown signs of improvement as from 832 in 2012, the state has recorded 865 girls at birth against 1000 boys in 2016.

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The state government recently claimed that it has already crossed 900 mark for 2018 as it claimed that by December 2018, the state's sex ratio was 924 girls per 1000 boys which if believed is a great achievement. Punjab now has 857 girls at birth against 1000 boys.

North-East and poor states have done well

The states such as Sikkim (999), Nagaland (967), Arunachal Pradesh (964), Mizoram (964) and Tripura (917) are at the top of the table. The other places like The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (987), Chhattisgarh (980) and Daman and Diu (974) have done well.

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Delhi and Assam have seen sharpest jumps in the table as Delhi and Assam reportedly leapfrogged from 848 to 902 and 834 to 888, respectively.