Rohtak district tops sex ratio at birth in state

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 2

More than 50 per cent districts in the state have recorded sex ratio at birth (SRB) less than the state average of 921 girls against 1,000 boys in the first quarter (from January 1 to March 31) of the current year. Four among the 12 districts have SRB less than 900.

Rohtak has topped the tally with SRB of 997 after jumping 15 places and gaining 85 points. It is followed by Panipat with 976 and Jind with 956.

Rohtak was on the 16th position in 2020 with the SRB of 912 and on the 18th position in 2019 with SRB of 911.

As per the Civil Registration System, Rohtak recorded the birth of a total 5,565 children from January 1 to March 31 and 2,787 among them were male and the remaining 2,778 were female.

Similarly, Panipat and Jind had SRB of 935 and 904 in 2020 respectively. They gained 41 and 52 points respectively as compared to last year. Charkhi Dadri (952) improved by 61 points, Mahendragarh (919) by 17 points, Palwal (923) by 13 points, Gurugram (928) by seven points and Panchkula (944) by five points.

Jhajjar suffered a major setback with registering the lowest SRB of 820 with a drop of 72 points while the figure was 892 in 2020. Besides Jhajjar, Bhiwani (892), Kaithal (890) and Fatehabad (866) are three other districts which fared poorly this year.

Sirsa slipped from first to 17th position with the drop of 48 points. It has registered SRB of 901 in the first quarter while the figure was 949 last year. Similarly, Kurukshetra (918) witnessed a drop of 20 points, Hisar (904) of 18 points, Sonepat (915) of 17 points, Nuh (931) of eight points, Yamunanagar (921) of seven points, Faridabad (909) of six points and Ambala (928) of three points.

The state has, during the first quarter, witnessed a slight drop of one point as the average SRB was 922 in 2020. A total 1,18,606 children were born in the first quarter of the current year while 61,751 were male while 56,855 were female.

“The unearthing of five sex determination rackets in Delhi, UP and adjoining districts of Rohtak besides special campaigns run to make the people aware about adverse effect of gender imbalance are main reasons for considerable improvement in the gender ratio,” said Dr Anil Birla, Civil Surgeon, Rohtak.