Haryana has reported considerable improvement in sex ratio reflecting the effective implementation of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015.

A 57-point rise in the sex-ratio at birth in last five years (females per 1,000 males) has been recorded in Haryana, as per the National Family Health Survey-5 (2020-2021).

The sex ratio witnessed an increase from 876 (NFHS-4 2015-16) to 926 in NFHS-5 while the sex ratio at birth recorded an increase from 836 to 893 (2020-21). The Chief Minister Manohar Lal has congratulated the officers involved in this campaign and said that the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign will continue and the State will soon reach the 950 mark in gender ratio at birth (girl child).

“Soon after the launch of the campaign, proactive measures were taken to enhance the gender ratio and to completely wipe out the menace of female foeticide in the state,” said Dr Amit Agarwal, Additional Principal Secretary to CM. He said a cell was immediately constituted in this regard and it started functioning in May 2015. Thereafter, comprehensive steps were taken to eradicate the malpractice of sex-determination and female foeticide under the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act and Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

The regular monitoring of the campaign, under the leadership of Chief Minister combined with the conscientious and diligent efforts of the Deputy Commissioners has been rewarding. Such a significant improvement in changing the mindset towards girl-child in a society is rarely seen, he said.

Elaborating, he further said that the gender ratio at birth (girl child) of Haryana was 871 in December, 2014 as per the Civil Registration System (CRS) which has now improved to 922 in December, 2020.

Dr Agarwal shared that in last five years, about 1,000 raids were conducted of which 275 raids were interstate raids and 970 FIRs were registered with regard to sex-determination and MTP. “Besides conducting raids to curtail sex-determination effective steps were taken to curb the administration of sex selection drugs (SSD). For this, more than 80 raids were conducted. Also, volunteers were used as decoys to identify the Diagnostic Centres etc conducting sex determination tests and an incentive of Rs 1 lakh was given to informers in the State for giving information about it.  In the last five years around Rs 3 crore has been given to such informers,” Dr Agarwal said. He added women excelling in sports like hockey and wrestling has also had a massive impact on changing the mindsets thereby enhancing the ‘sex-ratio at birth’. Other initiatives like Laadli, Aapki Beti-Humari Beti have also played a pivotal role in enhancing the gender-ratio, he added.

Notably, Haryana, which had the worst sex ratio among states in the 2011 census, was chosen by Prime Minister to launch the nationwide ambitious ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ in 2015. The state had the lowest child sex ratio of 834 compared to the national average of 919 (according to census of India 2011).