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Drop in child sex ratio brings sex determination into focus

PUDUCHERRY: The drop in Child Sex Ratio of the Union Territory, revealed by the Provisional Population Totals 2011 on Thursday, has brought into focus the question of sex determination and prevalence of selective abortion in the region.

According to the provisional figures, the Child Sex Ratio (CSR), calculated as the total number of girls to 1000 boys between the age group of 0 to 6 years, had dropped from 967 in 2001 to 965 in 2011. This was even as the territory saw an increase in the Adult Sex Ratio, which was placed at 1038 females to every 1000 males. Health Department statistics revealed that the Child Sex Ratio at Birth here was between 940 and 943 in the last few months, a figure that had raised concerns among policy makers.

In a study done by the Centre for Women Studies at the Pondicherry University, on the existence of “Male Child Preference” in the Puducherry region, it was found that “one in every three” among the 200 households that were studied in Kalapet and Muthialpet areas, had women who went through the process of sex determination.

Director of the Centre V.T. Usha said that several women pointed to their travel to clinics in the neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu and getting it done.

A quick check on the CSR of Cuddalore and Villupuram, the two districts bordering Puducherry, added credibility to the revelation made by the study. The CSR of Cuddalore had dropped considerably by 62 points and was placed at 895 in the current Census. The number of girls per 1000 boys in Villupuram was 938, a drop of 23 from 2001 Census.

Director of Health Dilipkumar Baliga said that the issue of the existence of clinics that help sex determination in the border regions have been “consistently” taken up with the officials of Tamil Nadu without any positive results.

“In fact, we had named clinics in places such as Neyveli where women from Puducherry had gone to get the abortion done. But those clinics continue to function. In 2010, we found six suspicious cases of selective abortion done there,” he said.

However, activists such as Sabu George, founder of Campaign Against Sex-Selective Abortion, who has been working on the issue of female foeticide for decades, said that existence of clinics that aid sex determination inside Puducherry cannot be ruled out.

“There was no way you could rule out such illegal sex determination inside Puducherry, given the numbers that the region throws. Till about January, the health officials were providing a CSR figure of 990 whereas now it has now come down to 965. This figure cannot be explained otherwise as reporting is usually good in south India,” he said.

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