Haryana has yet again recorded a skewed sex ratio of 910 girls per 1,000 boys born in the state in 2024 — the lowest in the past eight years, including 2023 (916).
According to the provisional data prepared by the state health authorities for 2024, 516,402 children were born in 2024, of which 270,354 (52.35 per cent of the total) were boys and 246,048 (47.64 per cent) were girls. This suggests that the number of girls was lower by 24,306 than that of boys in the given year.
According to data, the maximum number of births (57,961) in Haryana in 2024 took place in Nuh district, one of the most backward districts in the country. However, the sex ratio in Nuh, at 928, is among the best in the 22 districts of the state, lagging behind only Yamunanagar (936) and Sirsa (936).
Gurgaon, a millennium city, recorded 45,344 births in 2024 but with a sex ratio of only 899. Gurgaon is one of those districts with a sex ratio lower than 900. With a sex ratio of 899, neighbouring Faridabad is also in the same boat, with 48,777 births in 2024.
According to the civil registration system data, the state witnessed the lowest sex ratio at birth in 2024 since 2016 when it was recorded at 900. The sex ratio in 2015 was only 876.
As many as 13 districts, including Nuh, Fatehabad, Jind, Panchkula, Ambala, Palwal, Kaithal, Jhajjar, Panipat, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, and Charkhi Dadri, witnessed a poor sex ratio in 2024 compared to 2023. However, nine districts, namely Yamunanagar, Sirsa, Karnal, Bhiwani, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Mahendragarh, Sonipat, and Rohtak, improved their sex ratio in 2024 compared to 2023.
A senior officer of the Haryana government told The Indian Express, “The state witnessed significant improvements in the sex ratio after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP)” campaign in Panipat in 2015, with slight fluctuations.”
“Over 1,200 FIRs have been registered against the violators of the PNDT Act in the past ten years to check female foeticide. One-third of these FIRs were registered after raids were conducted in neighbouring states such as Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Nearly 4,000 arrests, including those of doctors, quacks, touts, patients, and their relatives, were made during all these years. Decoy pregnant female customers seeking sex determination played an important role in their arrests,” the officer added.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had on Friday said, “Haryana has actively worked with NGOs to save daughters under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative launched by the Prime Minister in 2015. As a result, the state’s gender ratio improved from 871 in 2014 to 916 in 2023.
Haryana is now recognised as a state that empowers daughters rather than one that suppresses them, marking a true tribute to Mata Savitribai Phule.”
In the 2011 Census, as many as 12 Haryana districts were among 100 gender-critical districts in the country, which were chosen based on the child sex ratio (0-6 years) for the campaign under the BBBP programme, launched in 2015, to control the menace of sex-selective abortions.
After the launch of the BBBP in Haryana in 2015, the sex ratio at birth increased to 914 in 2017 compared to 871 in 2014. The sex ratio at birth rose to 923 in 2019 and then fell to 922 in 2020, 914 in 2021, 917 in 2022, 916 in 2023, and 910 in 2024.
According to the civil registration system data, the state witnessed the lowest sex ratio at birth in 2024 since 2016 when it was recorded at 900. (Express Archives) 
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