Model Gujarat India's 'worst performer' in sex ratio at birth: Union home ministry report

By Rajiv Shah
In a surprise development, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) report titled ‘Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System’ has revealed that Gujarat is the worst performer insofar as Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) is concerned, raising concern whether female foeticide is rampant in a state touted as model by India’s top rulers.
The just-released report, which says that “lowest SRB has been reported by Gujarat (901), Assam (903), Madhya Pradesh (905) followed by Jammu & Kashmir (909)”, ironically, has come close on the heels of a Niti Aayog report which claims that in health sector goals, Gujarat and Delhi are the top performers among all the states and the Union Territories (UTs).
The NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index 2020-21 report, which seeks to analyse how states and UTs have performed in achieving sustainable development goal (SDG), says that, in the indicator good health and well-being, compared to India’s average, Gujarat saw lower proportion of maternal deaths, and mortality in children under five years.
The Niti report also claims that Gujarat achieved better case notification rate of tuberculosis per one lakh population, lower death rate due to road traffic accidents per one lakh population, greater institutional deliveries, lower monthly out of pocket expenditure on health as a share of monthly per capita consumption rate, and higher number of health staff per 10,000 population.
Yet, the MHA report believes, the best performers in SRB are Arunachal Pradesh (1024), followed by Nagaland (1001) Mizoram (975) and A & N Islands (965). The report has been prepared by the MHA’s Vital Statistics Division.
Based on data on birth registration, the report also regrets the share of male registration at birth “is more than the female in almost all these major states, but “this gap is much wider for Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Assam.”
A glance through data in the report on the level of registration of births in Gujarat reveals that while in 2011, it was 98.9%, it progressively came down each year, reaching a low 87.3% in 2019. Ironically, Gujarat’s registration went down over the nine years for which data has been provided at a time when the national average of registration of births has been progressively going up – from 82.4% in 2011 to 92.7% in 2019.
The registration of births has been constantly going down in Gujarat despite the fact that, according to the report, the state government massively geared up its machinery for registering births and deaths. Thus, it says, “A web-based application namely ‘e-Olakh’ developed by State NIC is being used in the state for the purpose of registration of birth and death”, in order to have “computerized system of registration at village/taluka/district level.”
Not just this. According to the report, in Gujarat, there was also a huge effort to train cadres for registering births and deaths. Thus, during 2019, “taluka statistical assistants were trained on day to day functioning of the system in the monthly meetings organized at district HQ wherein approximately more than one thousand officials were imparted training.”

Also, in Gujarat, “at state level, training had been imparted using Sat-Com technology to the registrars, sub-registrars and statistical assistants etc. In addition to this, training had also been imparted to Statistical Assistants and Programme Assistants (CRS) in regular review meetings conducted at state level.”
At the same time, the report contends, the registrar of births and deaths in Gujarat have been “sensitized to improve registration to achieve cent percent implementation of online registration of births and deaths”, and publicity efforts have been made by the state and district authorities, through various meetings for improving registration of births and deaths.”
Ironically, despite these efforts, the report admits, in Gujarat “most of the posts of taluka/district statistical assistants are vacant out of total sanctioned posts. Registrars are not utilizing the powers vested under the section 15 of the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD), Act, 1969 regarding corrections and cancellation of entries in birth and death record.”

It underlines, in Gujarat, there is “lack of awareness about the need and importance of registration of births and deaths and lack of registration procedure knowledge among the public.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog