Increasing sex crime graph is worrying not only the police administration of the district but also the conscious denizens of Hazaribagh district.
Since last few months Hazaribagh is in news mostly due to the sex crime cases. About ten days ago in broad daylight the denizens witnessed a heart throbbing scene in the midst of the town when they saw a newly born baby in the mouth of a street dog. These days talks are going on everywhere on the issue of increasing sex crime. People are trying to trace the roots of this evil. As per discussions it seems that it is a multi-rooted problem among which declining sex ratio is an important one.
The sex ratio of Hazaribagh district has declined sharply during last decade. As per 2001 census it was 972 girls per 1000 boys in the district. In 2011 it went down to 933 girls per 1000 boys. It was much lesser than the state level ratio which was 948 girls per 1000 boys.
After 2011 in 2 years it has further declined and as per reports in April 2013 it has went down to 920 girls per 1000 boys. A decline of about 1.5% thus has been recorded after 2011 census and if the rate of decline will go on in such pace in future then by 2021 it will be about 850 girls per 1000 boys. As per the data of National Health Mission in 2012-13 38363 children are born in Hazaribagh district. Among these newly born 19950 were boys and 18413 were girls. The difference between boys and girls was 1537 which clearly says that sex ratio has gone down to about 8%.
The above data clearly speaks that immediate attention on declining sex ratio is the need of hour here at Hazaribagh. Female feticide is the vital factor behind this sharp decline in sex ratio. Katkamsandi, Barhi and Hazaribagh Sadar block are the regions where due to female feticide sex ratio is going down alarmingly.
Though various government schemes are going on in the district for girl child but they are not fruiting. There is ban on ultrasound centers to give the report of sex of the unborn child. There are laws but no one cares it. However the Civil Surgeon of Hazaribagh claims that at Hazaribagh you cannot get report of sex of unborn child.
After recent developments and incidents now it is the high time for both the administration and society to think seriously about this and serious efforts are needed to change the mindset of the society otherwise sex crimes will not only go on but increase and we the people of the society will have to light candles almost every day in future.