Haryana: 910 girls per 1,000 boys at birth with selective abortion on the rise again
In 2024, the northern Indian state recorded its worst sex ratio at birth since 2016. For Dr Pascoal Carvalho, female foeticides are “carried out clandestinely.” A campaign promoted by Prime Minister Modi in 2015 only temporarily curbed the trend.
Gurgaon (AsiaNews) – New, alarming data about the number of females per thousand males at birth are coming out of the northern Indian state of Haryana, one of the most economically advanced in India.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Dr Pascoal Carvalho, a former member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that this reflects “India’s deep-rooted gender prejudice against girls”.
In 2024, the State of Haryana recorded the lowest ratio in eight years, with 910 girls per 1,000 boys at birth (in 2023 the number was 916). The sex ratio at birth is a key indicator of gender equality.
In India, data are collected by the Civil Registration System (CRS), which monitors the statistical evolution of deaths and births.
According to provisional data prepared by state health authorities for 2024, 516,402 babies were born last year, 270,354 boys (52.35 per cent) and 246,048 girls (47.64 per cent), 24,306 fewer girls than boys in the twelve-month period.
“Declining sex ratio could possibly indicate that girls are being killed in the womb. The practice of female foeticide, contravening legislation banning sex-determination tests and selective abortions are being carried out clandestinely,” Dr Carvalho explained. “The Catholic Church in India tireless emphasises the value and dignity of human life,” he added.
Established by Saint John Paul II in 1994, the purpose of the Pontifical Academy for Life is the defence and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person, but Dr Carvalho laments that “Societal biases against female children continue despite economic progress”.
According to the data, the maximum number of births (57,961) in Haryana in 2024 occurred in the district of Nuh, one of the most backward in the country. However, at 928, its sex ratio is among the best in the state's 22 districts, behind only Yamunanagar (936) and Sirsa (936).
Gurgaon recorded 45,344 births in 2024, but with a ratio of 899. Gurgaon is one of the districts with a biological sex ratio of less than 900. Faridabad also has the same ratio (899) with 48,777 births in 2024.
To stem the decline in the biological sex ratio in Haryana, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the daughters, Educate the daughters) campaign in 2015 to address all issues related to women's empowerment in their life cycle.
After the campaign, the state’s sex ratio improved, rising to 923 in 2019, but since 2020 it has started to decrease again, a trend that continues to this day.
For its part, “The church has been very active in empowering women through education, legal aid, healthcare, and sustainable development to educate the mother to protect the life of the girl child,” Carvalho noted.
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