Of the 4,694 births registered by the Pune Municipal Corporation in April, 2,347 were girls
“I have never seen Child Sex Ratio (CSR) of 1:1 (1,000 girls per 1,000 boys). This is surprising as well encouraging news. This proves that our department has managed to curbed the cases of illegal sex determination and female foeticide in the city,” Anjali Sabne, deputy health chief, PMC health department, said.
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She was referring to the civic body data for the month of April 2013. Sabne said this was for the first time in her career that she had witnessed an equal sex ratio. She added that of the 4,694 births recorded by the PMC in April, 2,347 were for girl children. Sabne said she had crosschecked the data as a precautionary measure.
But activist Varsha Deshpande criticised the sample size, saying that it was too small. “There is a possibility that the CSR might match in a particular month. But as per demography science, the sample size should be at least 25,000 to calculate CSR.
There is no doubt that the picture is changing in the state, but our aim should be to maintain CSR at 950:1,000 for five years at least. Only then can we say that we have overcome female infanticide.”
She added that birth registration percentage in the state was 96 per cent. “People from all strata of society are aware about registering their newborns,” Deshpande said.
The unexpected
Though the month of April was extraordinary according to Sabne, the average sex ratio from January to September this year witnessed a slight drop. While the figures stood at 934 girls per 1,000 boys in 2012 from January to September, this year, the average has dropped to 926 girls per 1,000 boys. u00a0
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