Numbers reveal the occurrence of sex discrimination at birth in Tamil Nadu. A closer look at the vital statistics data based on the Civil Registration System (CRS), 2011, released by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner last month, shows that a total of 5, 50, 173 girl babies were born in Tamil Nadu as against 6, 07, 806 boy babies in that year. This is a sex ratio at birth of 905, calculated as the number of female babies for every 1000 male babies.
In a society where sex discrimination at birth is not practiced, the standard sex ratio at birth is 952. Therefore, had the required number of girl babies been born in Tamil Nadu there would have been 5, 78, 631 girl babies born in 2011. This is a deficit of 28, 458 girl babies in one year alone!
Researchers at the United Nations Population Fund further add that sex ratio at birth must be in the range of 943-962 in a normal society, and any number lesser than that is an indicator of sex selection and elimination before birth.
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According to the CRS report, Tamil Nadu had 100 per cent registration of births in 2011, eliminating the scope for any underreporting of births in the data.
K. Nagaraj, retired professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, and expert in demography, says there are few other plausible explanations in social science for the dip in births of female babies in a society, than sex selection and elimination before birth. “Since most families tend to be small now, with only one or two children, the desire to determine the sex of the unborn child is likely to increase,” he says.
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What is a greater cause for concern is that the sex ratio at birth in the State shows decline over time. Data over a five-year period shows that sex ratio at birth has been consistently low. In 2004-2007, the average sex ratio at birth was 936, but for the period 2008-2011, this number stood at 925.
Year | Sex ratio at birth | Year | Sex ratio at birth |
|---|---|---|---|
2011 | 905 | 2007 | 935 |
2010 | 935 | 2006 | 939 |
2009 | 933 | 2005 | 936 |
2008 | 928 | 2004 | 936 |
2008-11 | 925 | 2004-07 | 936 |
“It is possible to further cross-check the statistical validity of this decline when we compare the CRS data with the sex ratio at birth data provided in the Sample Registration Survey Statistical Report 2011,” said Dr. Sabu George, a researcher with over 30 years experience in monitoring sex-selective abortions across India. According to this Report, sex ratio at birth for Tamil Nadu in 2009-2011 is 926, consistent with the average derived from the CRS data for that period.
Silent crime
Though the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, criminalises sex selection and elimination of girls, the practice continues to take place.
According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, in 2013, only one case of foeticide has been reported. But activists say the number is most certainly higher.