TOI : Hyd shows the way, reverses sex ratio : Nov 13,2007

Hyderabad: Hyderabad district in Andhra Pradesh has shown what political and administrative will can achieve if put to effective use, by reversing the region’s sex ratio.

It has now emerged as the district with the best female to male ratio in the state as far the girl child is concerned.

Thanks to a crackdown on ultrasound scanning centres by the woman and child welfare department, the current sex ratio in Hyderabad district is 1,014 girls for 1,000 boys in the age group of 0-6.

By determining the sex of the baby, these centres had helped many a couple abort girl children by the hundreds.

Blaming sex determination centres and the craving among people for a boy, state woman and child welfare minister N Rajyalakshmi said the Andhra government launched an aggressive campaign to arrest the negative trend.

“We sensitised people and mobilised woman doctors of the city in great numbers against the social evil. We kept a strict vigil on the 800 scan centres in the city,” she said.

“The Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1994, to prevent abuse of pre-natal test is in force in its truest spirit. Now, girlchild births in Hyderabad has risen from 933 to 1,014 per thousand male child births,” she said.

The turnaround was largely due to the efforts of Arvind Kumar, who was the Hyderabad district collector between 2004 and 2006. He had found that Hyderabad had the dubious distinction of the lowest sex ratio in Andhra.

From 962 girls (against 1,000 boys) in the 1991 census, the ratio had dropped to 941 in the 2001 census. During Kumar’s tenure as collector, the sex ratio hovered around 920 girls.

Maintaining that such a decline was not due to natural causes, Kumar ordered a crackdown on ultrasound scanning centres. It was found that of the 391 centres in the city then, almost 360 were flouting the PNDT Act. It was also found that 50% pregnant women got an ultrasound done without a prescription.

The state’s average is now 978 girls for 1,000 boys in 0-6 age group. Sources said with 2,032 PNDT centres, Andhra is next only to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in having most such centres.

NOT A CANDLE IN THE WIND

The sex ratio in Hyderabad according to the 1991 census was 962 girls against 1,000 boys

The figure dropped to 941 in the 2001 census

Between 2004 and 2006, it is said to have dropped as low as 920, prompting a crackdown on illegal ultra sonography centres

Now, the sex ratio is 1,014 girls for 1,000 boys in the age group of 0-6

Publication:TOI_Mumbai; Date:Nov 13, 2007; Section:Times Nation; Page Number:13