Rajasthan wakes up to fix its dismal sex ratio

In India, a social problem doesn’t get attention it deserves till it reaches alarming proportions. In that sense, Census 2011, that reported a steep fall of 21 points in the child sex ratio, was the jolt that was needed for the government to wake up to he crisis facing the girl child in Rajasthan.

As per Census 2011, the child sex ratio (CSR) fell to sub 900 levels in Rajasthan. It was 909 in the 2001 census, but a decade later it came down to 888. Out of 33 districts in the state, barely 10 districts had a CSR of 900 or above.

Experts had been warning about the skewed child sex ratio ever since the 2001 census revealed the yawning gap between the number of girls and boys in Rajasthan. But no one took them seriously and the slide continued.

A big shock was needed for people and the policy makers to acknowledge the impending catastrophe and Census 2011 data was just what the doctor ordered.

The government swung into action, finally. Four years later, its determination and innovative methods have paid off.

A big leap of 42 points has been recorded in the girl-boy sex ratio at birth. According to the Pregnancy and Child Tracking System (PCTS), the number of girls born per 1000 boys was 929 on the basis of total 28.38 lakh institutional births — 13.67 lakh girls and 14.71 lakh boys.

In fact, the online system of “OJAS” and Shubh Lakhsmi (now renamed Rajshree) have thrown up an even more promising ratio of 1036 girls per 1000 boys.

“If this trend continues, the day is not far when we will have a healthy child sex ratio,” said medical and health minister Rajendra Singh Rathore.

Acknowledging the turn around, Mr Sanjay Sharma, state programme manager of Save the Children, attributed it to effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act along with several schemes including cash incentives for the girl child and her parents.

Unfortunately, chief minister Vasundhara Raje is often praised for ushering big bang reforms rather than improvement in the CSR, which is a far greater achievement.

During her previous tenure, she came up with a scheme to pay cash rewards to any couple undergoing sterilization after having one or two daughters. The money, '10,000 per girl (age 0-5 years), was to be deposited in the CCP scheme of the UTI mutual fund and given to them when the girl turned 18.

Depending on the age of the girl at the time of entry, this amount could be anywhere between Rs 45000 to Rs 77000 at maturity.

“It is encouraging but there is long way to go. We will get to know what actually happens only in 2021,” said Ms Rakhi Badhwar, state programme manager of Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) that worked with the government on a three-year project to shore up the capabilities of 180 gram panchayats with the help of JRD Tata Trust.

However, Ms Badhwar believes that at this juncture what is more important is the perceptional change among people, policy makers and the bureaucracy about this problem. “There is a sea change in their attitude after Census 2011. It somewhere pinched them that Rajasthan was among the top five states with worst CSR and they could no longer ignore this problem. Earlier, we had to request them to come to meetings and send reminders, but later they started going after us about field visits in case we couldn’t go for some reasons,” she said, adding that the government’s incentives schemes had also played a huge role.