Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao movement leads to a nationwide increase in the average sex-ratio of male child to female child

In these difficult times when a good news is hard to come by, we have got a good news.

States like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were suffering from a huge  difference in the sex-ratio of male child to female child due to old and prevalent malpractices such as female infanticide and abortion of female child in the womb itself, are now  seeing a decrease in the difference in the sex-ratio. By definition, sex-ratio means the ratio of males to females in a given population.

According to Mrs. Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development "Improvement in the sex-ratio in these states happened due to the Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao Scheme launched by the government. Average sex-ratio throughout the country has also improved".

In 2015-16 , the sex-ratio was 1000 males to 918 females which increased to 1000 males to 934 females in 2019-20.

In Uttar Pradesh, the average per 1000 males is now 928 females which was previously 885. In Haryana, this average  per 1000 males became 924 females which was earlier 816. In Chandigarh it increased to 935 from 874 females per 1000 males. In Punjab female ratio increased from 892 to 920. In Himachal Pradesh, it increased from 897 to 933 females and in Rajasthan it increased from 929 to 948. It just goes to show that people are changing slowly and in a good way.

But where these states saw an increase in the ratio, some others states like Bihar, Odisha and Kerala saw a decrease in the no. of females per 1000 males thereby increasing the difference in the sex-ratio which shows that we still have a long way to go.