Contrary to the claims of the Uttarakhand Government about consistent improvement in the child sex ratio in the State, much less numbers of girls are getting enrolled in the Anganwadi centres of Uttarakhand as compared to boys.
As per the data, provided by the Uttarakhand Women Commission (UWC) under Gudda Guddi Board (GGB) of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Campaign, it has been revealed that in the last 12 months, 6,11,172 boys were registered in the Anganwadi centres as compared to 53,075 girls. As per the data of the health department of State, the child sex ratio in the year 2015 was 906 girls per thousand boys which increased to 938 this year (2018-2019).
The enrolment data of the Anganwadi centres also reveal a plain and mountainous region schism in Uttarakhand. A predominately mountainous district like Pauri , 2597 boys and 2415 girls were registered in the year which has gone by, indicating a healthy trend.
In another small mountainous district Champawat, 1354 boys were registered against 1206 girls registered in the anganwadis. Similarly in Tehri district, 2865 boys and 2779 girls were registered while in Rudraprayag 1469 boys were registered as compared with 1462 girls.
In sharp contrast, a predominantly plain district like Dehradun 8580 boys were enrolled in Anganwadi centres as compared with 7128 girls.
Similarly in Haridwar 14241 boys and 12174 girls were registered in the Anganwadi centres. In Udham Singh Nagar, another plain district, 12858 boys were registered as compared to only 10799 girls. In Nainital district, 5603 boys and 4981 girls were registered in the Anganwadi centre.
State project officer UWC, Arti Balodi said, “We have improved a lot especially in the critical districts of the state and an increase in registrations of the girls is witnessed. We conduct awareness programmes in the villages from time to time to make people aware of girl child rights and the importance of girl’s education. During the years of works, the fact came to fore that girls dropped out of schools when they start menstruating. For that, we are distributing very cheap but good quality sanitation napkins in the rural areas through Anganwadi centres.”
Anganwadi's in the State are rural childcare centres that provide basic education and nutrition help to children as well as to the mother apart from spreading awareness for the Government schemes.