Haryana, which has been infamous for skewed sex ratio, has recorded sex ratio at 950 — the first time in the history of the State.
As per the Government’s statistics, Haryana has touched the 950 mark in March 2017.
Narnaul with sex ratio of 1279 girls for 1000 boys tops the list followed by Palwal with 1217 and Panipat recording sex ratio at 993.
Among other districts, Kurukshetra recorded sex ratio at 980, Sirsa 976, Yamunangar 974, Hisar 972, Karnal 953, Faridabad at 947. Rohtak was at the bottom recording sex ratio at 863 while Fatehabad, Jind, Bhiwani, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Kaithal also recorded child sex ratio below 900 mark in March 2017.
Haryana, which had the worst sex ratio among States in the 2011 census, was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch the nationwide ambitious ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ in 2015. Haryana had the lowest child sex ratio of 834 compared to the national average of 919 (according to census of India 2011).
Chief Minister Manohar lal on Friday said that the State had, after launch of BBBP programme, accepted the challenge of improving the skewed sex ratio and launched a massive campaign by implementing Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 and Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 and running sensitisation-cum awareness campaigns promoting girl child.
He said that more than 430 FIRs have been lodged in the state under the PC-PNDT Act and MTP Act against the offenders during last about two years since the launch of this campaign, who were involved in sex selection and female foeticide.
Out of these, more than 80 FIRs were registered after interstate raids in the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Punjab. All raids were conducted by deploying decoys. Apart from these, more than 50 cases of Sex Selection Drugs (SSDs) being sold by unscrupulous elements promising male child were also detected and FIRs were registered against such offenders under the PNDT Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC), he said.
In many cases, the raiding parties found that these offenders were fooling the pregnant women and their relatives by using dummy instruments which are not able to detect the sex of the foetus, said Manohar lal.
The Chief Minister said that rampant misuse of MTP kits for illegal abortion purposes by unauthorised paramedics in the state was also detected and culprits were booked under MTP Act, Drugs Act and IPC. After registering cases against the offenders, they were prosecuted in the court of law and in more than 10 cases, the state has achieved convictions under the PNDT Act, MTP Act, and other related Acts.
The state also issued Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines for investigation of cases under PC-PNDT Act and MTP Act to ensure effective, speedy and fair investigations. Simultaneously, training-cum-sensitisation workshops on various legal issues involved were convened for police officers, public prosecutors and health officials, he added.
Notably, the sex ratio at birth in the state had earlier crossed the 900 mark in 2016 for the first time, for which the Prime Minister had lauded the Haryana Government for its achievement.