Finally Some Good News In 2022: Pune Reports Improvement In Rural Child Sex Ratio

The Pune Zilla Parishad has released its latest child sex ratio data for rural parts of the district. The results are encouraging as the rural areas of the Pune district in Maharashtra show an improvement in the ratio by seventy points. The survey was carried out by the Parishad through a screening programme, following which data was collected by visiting every household in rural areas.

Within the age group of 0-6 years, the number of girls is 941 for every 1000 boys in rural Pune. This is an improvement considering that according to the 2011 Census, there were 871 girls for every 1000 boys in the area. Child sex ratio is used to determine the number of girl children per 1000 boys in any particular area and a time period. It is often used to determine the status of girl children in an area and the problems associated with female infanticide, treatment of girl children in case of illness and disease, pre-birth sex selection amongst others.

This data is further used to determine the policies that the state can improve or accelerate on after observing the quantification of the problem in the given space and time. Talking about the process of coming to conclusion with these figures, the CEO of Pune Zilla Parishad Aayush Prasad said that they have calculated this sex ratio by carrying out a census of children below the age of six and who are under the Pune Zilla Parishad's child health screening programme.

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"The improved sex ratio is a collective outcome of the successive administrations in Pune district over the last ten years. I compliment the people of Pune for bringing about this social change," said Prasad.

Pune Rural Child Sex Ratio 2022

According to the 2011 Census, the overall child sex ratio for the given age group was 883, it was 871 in rural and 892 in urban parts of the district. Talking about the process of collection of data, Prasad told the Times of India that the Zilla Parishad had launched a screening programme that covered every household, and included temporary shelters and orphanages.

"As many as 575 villages are in the red zone, 111 villages in the orange zone and 686 villages in the green zone. Among the talukas, Daund and Haveli are in the red zone. Ambegaon, Shirur, Khed and Maval in orange zone. Mulshi, Velha Bhor, Baramati, Indapur and Junnar are in the green zone," he said. This colour coding has been done in accordance with health experts. Green has a child sex ratio of 949 or more, orange is for the range of 912-948 and red signifies a ratio below 912.

In the course of the survey, 3.28 lakh children below six years of age were identified. Out of the total number, 3.11 lakh include children in aganwadis, private playschools, at home and in schools. These screenings were done before January 31 this year. However, the rest like the ones who had migrated during COVID-19 times could not be traced.