Uttarakhand, Himachal Fare Well on Centre’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Report Card

In 2015, Virbhadra Singh—the longest-serving chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, who held the office for six terms between 198ℱ3 and 2ꩲ017—announced a reformative policy to address the declining—or, rather, alarming—child sex ratio (CSR) in the state.

The situation was dire. While Himachal was among the ten states in the country to have a dismal sex ratio (ratio of males to females), the CSR—the number of girls per 1,000 boys in the age group of 0–6 years—was alarmingly low. There were 88🅠2 girls per 1,000 boys. Una, Kangra, Solan and Hamirpur districts were the worst affected. While the numbers stood at 849 and 877 for Hamirpur and Kangra, respectively🥀, the situation in Una, which borders Punjab, was especially worrisome. In at least 24 panchayats, the CSR was below 500 and in one or two panchayats, the numbers were as low as 111 and 167. The Una numbers drew the attention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Supreme Court (SC) and the Health and Family Welfare Department.

The stat🎀e government was under pressure to take some concrete action. The chief minister proposed to give additional incentives to panchayats with good sex ratio and CSR and said those who fare badly could get lesser budgetary allocation. The low CSR in the state was attributed to a number of factors, including sex-selective abortions, neglect of girls and a preference for sons. As a fallout of this, the state government decided to track the record of pregnancies, births and child immunisation to know the root cause of the declining child sex ratio, especially in the border areas.

This was a few months after the Centre launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign on January 22, 2015. It’s a national initiative 🅺to address the issue of declining CSR and growing instances of f🍰emale foeticide in the country.

To check the low CSR numbers in the꧂ border areas, then additional chief secretary Vineet Chawdhary—who later served as the chief secretary and is now retired—shot off a letter to the Punjab government asking it to swoop down on the illegal abortion clinics to which people from Una and other districts had easy access to. They would abort girl child after getting ultrasound tests done illegally. Punjab, that itself had a skewed sex ratio, did not help the state. As per some reports, mobile vans fitted with ultrasound equipment would do the rounds in rural areas and people would undertake sex determination tests.

The data suggests the ratio was skewed even between urban and rural areas. As per the 2011 Census, while the sex ratio in the hill state was recor🌠ded at 972 females against 1,000 males, the CSR was at 909 females per 1,000 🍰males. The rural sex ratio stood at 986 against the urban sex ratio of 853.

“This clearly shows that the urban areas have been more vulnerable to falling sex ratio as compared to the ruraꦯl areas where people had no access to ultra❀sound or other diagnostic means,” says Ramesh Chand, a retired senior medical Superintendent at Indira Gandhi Medical College hospital, Shimla.

The efforts ཧtaken by the state government as 𒁃well as the initiatives launched as part of the BBBP campaign saw the numbers improve. Talking about the CM’s proposal of penalising/incentivising panchayats, Basu Sood, Advisor (Planning), says: “I don’t recall having come across any documentation/file about orders passed to halt panchayat funding during this particular year (2015) or even later. The warning seems to have gone well down the line.”

A senior retired bureaucrat, serving as Additional Chief Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) recalls some panchayats we𒐪re incentivised with additional grants from the state health department for showing notable improvement in the child seꦉx ratio around that period. 

Ten years after the launch of the BBBP initiative, the state has shown a remarkable increase in CSR. “This year, the sex ratio is at 964 as against 947 in 2023. It is going to be the best in the country as per day-to-day mapping of the institutional deliveries recorded,” informs M Sudha Devi, Principal Secretary (Health and family welfare). She says it is the result of the consistent effort of the state’s agencies,🥀 including the Department of Health, Social Justice and Education, besides the role played by the Panchayati Raj institutions undertaking massive awareness drives.

“There is 💎a visible change now. More and more families in Himachal are opting for a single child. Social awakening has changed people’s mindset. Strict measures and frequent checks on sex determination have paid off,” claims Rakesh Kanwar, secreta🌞ry, education, who is also the CM’s secretary.

In many districts, including in the tribal areas, there is not much gap in the gender numbers—in fact, in many districts, there are more number of girls as compared to boys. Una, however, is still struggling with 918 female🍃s against 1,000 males at birth.

Endorsing the success, Kuldeep Tanwar, who heads Gyan Vigyan Samiti—one of the state’s leading NGOs associated with the BBBP initiative says the role played by mahila mandals and social activist groups, as well as state agencies, 🔯has done wonders.

T🎉anwar, a retired Indian Forest Services officer, recalls his NGO started actively working on awareness drives, besides launching a literacy drive in 2003-2005. That time the state was grappling with a severe decline in the sex ra🐠tio.

“However, it’s encouraging to see a reversal of that trend now. Notably, some families in the state now have single girl child. The opening of a large number of schools and colleges at the sub-divisional level has significantly transformed the landscape. The government has also launched many scholarships,” he asserts. Dalit families, single women and widows are getting in🌌terest-free grants to help their girls attend schools and colleges. “Some o꧂f the colleges in rural areas have more girls than boys. They also have been doing extremely well in sports and academics,” informs Tanwar.

At an International Women’s Day function, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu informed that reservation for women in police recruitment has been raised to 30 per cent. Under the Indira Gandhi Sukh Shiksha Yojanaꦑ, the state 𒉰government is bearing the entire cost of education of the children of widowed women, so that their studies are not affected.

Uttarakhand Numbers Go Up As well

The neighbouring state of Uttarakhand has been adjudged as one of the country’s five best-performing states under the BBBP initiative (2019) for comprehensively helping to arrest the declining child sex ratio an🐈d address issues of women empowerment.

Pradeep Tiwari, executive director, Aarohi—a N𝓰ainital-based NGO working in the 🐓field of healthcare, education and women empowerment—has noted a substantial change in mindsets in terms of girls, their education and empowerment.

“We are working in close coordination with various agencies, including the Centre and the state. The BBBP initiative has shown impressive results. Aarohi has its outreach programmes to enhance enrolments of girl child in more than 90 remote villages of Nainital, Almora ไand other remote districts of Uttarakhand, directly impacti🐓ng 10,000+ households,” says Tiwari.

Continuous efforts were made by the state government to maintain a 30 per cent horizontal reservation in jobs for women in 🏅the state. The Bill was passed by the a♕ssembly and has also received a nod from the Governor.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-V), in 2018-2020, the sex ratio at birth in Uttarakhand was 844, which was the worst in the country. But, in 2021, it was 984, The overall sex ratio in Uttarakhand is 963 fem🔴ales per 1,000 males.

The cities of Uttarakhand with a low sex ꦏratio include Haridwar, Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital, and Uttarkashi while Almora, Rudraprayag, Garhwal, Bageshwar and Tehri Garhwal are better placed, informs Bhawna Uniyal, a field health worker at Rishikesh.