Scandalous sex ratio

BS OPINION

 The country as a whole had only 927 girls to every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group, at the dawn of the 21st century.

 This is in contrast to the world average of 1,045 females to 1,000 males. The situation has deteriorated at an alarming rate in the decade of the 1990s.

 As many as 70 districts in 16 states witnessed a drop of over 50 points in the child sex ratio. Indeed, what was seen as a nascent trend in the 1991 census has become a disturbing reality in 2001.

 The killing of girl children seems to have spread to the whole of Indian society; across all religions; in rural as well as urban areas; among rich and poor. The education level has made no difference.

 The worst areas, where the sex ratio has dropped to less than 900 girls per 1000 boys, include Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and parts of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

 Till 1991, no locality of Delhi had a juvenile sex ratio of less than 900. By 2001, none of the localities had more than 868 females to 1000 males.

 The drop, indeed, is much steeper in relatively well-off states of Punjab and Haryana, where this ratio has plummeted to below even 800 in many districts