In Odisha, Betis are staring at an acute existential crisis. The child sex ratio (number of girl child born per 1,000 male child) during the last half a decade has witnessed an alarming fall in almost 50 per cent of the State’s districts. The Nayagarh syndrome is fanning like wild fire and even has gulped the Chief Minister’s home district Ganjam.
Now, Jajpur rural and Ganjam rural have worst Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in the State. The two districts have nudged infamous Nayagarh to 3rd in the dubious list. The CSR in the districts witnessed a fall of a whopping 25-24 per cent since the 2011. What makes it an emerging disconcerting trend is that in urban areas of as many 12 districts, the CSR has taken a plunge vis-a-vis 2011. For instance, the State’s headquarters district Khordha showed an 11-per cent decline in the CSR to 813 in 2015-16. Therefore, if the trend continues, Odisha looks all set to emerge as the new Harayana-Punjab of India by 2022.
Such a shocking revelation has been made by the recently-released Odisha chapter of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16. It reveals that the CSR during last half a decade (2011-12 to 2015-16) in Ganjam and Jajpur have dipped acutely vis-a-vis the 2011 census data.
Sample this: Nayagarh, which had the worst CSR in 2011 and was included under the 100-per cent Centrally-sponsored flagship scheme Beti Bacchao Beti Padhaao (BBPP), has a rural CSR of 753 down from 905 in 2011 whereas rural Jajpur and rural Ganjam have now a CSR of 700 and 717, respectively, vis-a-vis of 937 and 943, respectively, in 2011.
Following the drastic dip, Jajpur jointly occupied the dubious number one spot along with Nayagarh with a total CSR of 725 and Ganjam has leapt to second with a total CSR of 801. The survey reveals a quantum dip in the CSR in 15 districts whereas in another half a dozen districts the urban CSR dipped contrary to a rise in rural areas of the said districts, revealing continuance of widespread sex determinations in urban areas courtesy the ultrasound clinics.
Significantly, in the above context, the eye-opener is that as per the PCPNDT Act 1994, by the end of 2016, the State Government has not cancelled or suspended medical licence of any single ultrasound clinic. Moreover, of a total of 61 cases on trial in courts, the State could see conviction in mere three cases which then put trial to conviction ratio at a mere 5 per cent against the national average of trial to conviction rate of over 15 per cent. Also, the raids done by the PCPNDT cell in Odisha in 2016 has been around 2,449 vis-a-vis over 3,300 by a small State like Assam.
The result: the CSR dipped in districts like Angul, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar and Khordha.