Except for two border districts, sex-ratio at birth (SRB) continues to be over 900 in the other 19 districts of Haryana. As per latest figures, the 12-month average SRB for the state has been recorded at 915 till April 2018.

As per the date available till April 2018, only Fatehabad and Mahendragarh districts now have the SRB less than 900. In past 12 months (May 2017 to April 2018), while SRB stood at 894 in Fatehabad, Mahendragarh was at bottom of the list with a SRB of 892.

Amongst the 21 districts, Yamunanagar was at the top of the list with sex-ratio at birth of 943. It was followed by Sirsa (937), Sonepat (934) and Gurugram (927).

The SRB has gone up from 832 in 2012 to 914 in 2017. The same was recorded 915 in past 12 months till April 2018.

“Fatehabad and Mahendragarh share their border with Punjab and Rajasthan respectively and it may be the cause of them legging behind in SRB as authorities in other states are not as proactive against sex-determination as Haryana. But even these districts have shown significant improvement as their SRB was as low as 770 (Mahendragarh) and 840 (Fatehabad) in 2012, ” the official added.

From 1966 to 2015 (49 years) the male-female ratio had never touched the 900 mark in Haryana. After the launch of BBBP in 2015, the ratio touched the 900 mark for the first time in the month of December 2015. In 12 months between May 2017 and April 2018, the average sex ratio at birth remained 915.

Besides the political as well as administrative support, the above turnaround has been achieved thanks to a four-pronged strategy put in place to curb female feticide — use of sting operations, decopy customers, coordination between concerned departments (health, education and women and child) and, use of decoy customers and filing of First Information Reports (FIRs).

Having worst sex ratio in the country, as many as 12 of state’s districts had found place in 100 districts categorised as ‘gender critical’ in the country when BBBP was launched in 2015. The sex ratio in the state at that time stood at just 876 females per 1,000 males.

Even more, three Haryana districts — Mahendragarh (775 girls per 1,000), Jhajjar (782) and Rewari (787) – had the worst sex ratio in the country. The remaining nine gender critical districts include Panipat (837), Sonepat (798), Ambala (810), Kurukshetra (818), Rohtak (820), Karnal (824), Yamunanagar (826), Kaithal (828) and Bhiwani (832). But now except for Mahendragarh (892), all the remaining districts have SRB of over 900 now.