Sex ratio at birth up 13 points at 931 in four years, says Smriti Irani

NEW DELHI: Union women and child development minister Smriti Irani has said the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has risen 13 points nationally since the implementation of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme, which aims to generate awareness about welfare schemes for girls and make them more efficient.

Speaking at an event on Friday to felicitate states and districts for initiatives taken to improve the sex ratio, Irani said the SRB nationally was 918 in 2015. “In the last four years, it has gone up by 13 points to 931 and we hope to increase it to 26 points in the next year,” she said. These figures, however, vary from those cited by the second health index report released by the NITI Aayog in June that showed an alarming decline in SRB in 12 out of 21 states between 2013-15 and 2014-16. Officials said the variance was because the data compiled by the ministry was drawn from the Health Management Information System, updated by Anganwadi and Asha workers, which largely considers home deliveries and births in government institutions only. It lacks information from private hospitals and institutions.

The NITI Aayog data, on the other hand, is taken from the sample registration system which is based on the National Family Health Survey-4 that draws information from household surveys as well. As per the Aayog’s figures, based on sample registration data, in the 2014-2016 period, of the 21 large states, only two – Kerala and Chhattisgarh – had an SRB of above 950 girls per 1,000 boys.


The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme, launched by PM Narendra Modi from Haryana’s Panipat in Janaury 2015, has primarily focused on disseminating information about the dangers of genderbased sex selective elimination and on ensuring the survival of the girl child along with encouraging parents to send their daughters to school.