HYDERABAD: Telangana has one of the lowest sex ratios in the country, with 924 females per 1,000 males, as per the ‘Annual Report on Vital Statistics of India’ for the year 2018, released recently by Census India. The sex ratio data for 23 States were released, and 16 States had better sex ratio than Telangana. Arunachal Pradesh had the best sex ratio among all the States, with 1,084 females per 1,000 males. Among South-Indian states, Kerala had the best sex ratio of 963. Telangana’s sex ratio saw a slight improvement in 2018 from 2017, which had 915 females per 1,000 males.
When contacted, Dr A Suneetha, Senior Fellow at Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies pointed out, “There are multiple reasons as to why the sex ratio is low in Telangana. One of them is the lack of discourse on women’s empowerment by the Telangana government. Moreover, funds are given judgingly to the Women and Child Welfare Development Department. The Kalyana Lakshmi scheme by the government just reinforces the notion that the only aim of a girl child is to get married.”
She added, “There are not enough schools and colleges for women in the districts, and there are not enough women representatives in the State government. Further, there are no good reforms against dowry.” The State also recorded 8,848 infant deaths, making it the ninth highest among 29 States.
Birth, death registrations
The report also said that only 71.8 per cent births and 69.1 per cent deaths were registered within the prescribed time period of 21 days in the State. While the estimated number of births in Telangana stood at 6,52,791 in 2018, 6,28,842 births were registered. And though 2,34,420 deaths were estimated to have occurred, only 1,36,528 deaths were registered.