Sex Ratio At Birth Rises To 931 Girls Per 1,000 Boys In 2018-19; Nagaland, Uttarakhand And Haryana See Major Gains

According to the ministry of women and child development’s latest data, the all-India sex ratio at birth (SRB) has risen from 923 girls per 1,000 boys to 931 girls per 1,000 boys in the four years between 2015-16 and 2018-19, reports The Times of India.

The information was released as part of a reply to a question raised in the parliament over the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ programme.

Kerala continues to lead the rankings, with its SRB coming in at 959 girls per 1,000 boys; it shared this position with Chhattisgarh. Mizoram and Goa are at 958 and 954 respectively. Punjab and Lakshadweep are at the bottom of the list, with figures of 900 and 891 respectively.

Some of the states which made major gains in the SRB were Nagaland and Uttarakhand, with the number for the former rising from 904 to 932, and that for the latter increasing from 906 to 938. Impressive gains have also been made in Haryana, which has historically had one of the worst SRBs in the country, with the figure for the state rising from 887 to 914.

The human sex ratio at birth naturally has a small deficit of female births compared to male births, but that tends to stabilise with age as males tend to have higher rates of mortality. However, over the past few decades the sex ratio at birth in India has been unnaturally low due cultural preferences for sons, leading to gender-based abortions.