Have no girls been born in 132 villages in India?

Pedro_P

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▼ When reports emerged earlier this week that no girl had been born in 132 villagesin the small Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in the last three months, it sparked panic and prompted a government investigation into the matter.
The "no girl villages" were reported from Uttarkashi, where some 400,000 people live in 550 villages and five towns. Much of the terrain is hilly and remote. In a country which has been grappling with an awful sex-ratio imbalance - largely because of illegal sex-selection abortions - the news has caused considerable anguish.
Except that this might not be completely true.
The reports said 216 boys and no girls were born in the 132 villages between April and June. But officials found 180 girls andnoboys were born during the same period in 129 different villages. And to complete the mixed picture, 88 girls and 78 boys were born in another 166 villages.
Overall 961 live births were recorded in Uttarkashi between April and June. A total of 479 were girls, while 468 were boys. (The rest were possibly stillborn) This, officials say, corresponds favourably with the district's sunny sex ratio of 1,024 women for 1,000 men, higher than the national average of 933 women per 1,000 men.
Officials say the media possibly cherry-picked the birth data provided by volunteer health workers entrusted with collecting it. Some 600 of these workers are tasked with the job of recording pregnancies and births, and carrying out immunisation and birth control programmes.
"I feel media reports about the no-girl villages have been misinterpreted. Also, there is not enough understanding of the context. We've ordered an investigation anyway," Ashish Chauhan, the senior-most official of the district told me.
So 26 officials have fanned out across 82 villages to check the veracity of the data and to find out whether something is wrong.
Slip-up?
What could have gone wrong? (▪ ▪ ▪)

► Please, continue reading this article here: Source

Rhett_Bassard

Interesting how the source jumps from a birth rate story to one of Uttarakhand sociology, e.g.
"

Also, women here are typically more hardworking than men: labouring on farms, cutting grass, milking cows, cooking and doing household chores. Alcoholism among men is high.

"

Quick, book a flight

Pedro_P

Rhett Bassard 26-7-2019 12:59 AM
Interesting how the source jumps from a birth rate story to one of Uttarakhand sociology, e.g.
"Als ...

Generally, newspapers or news sources use local correspondents to write these articles... It would be interesting to know how reliable and objective the data presented are.
Although it is an unavoidable and perverse truth, that in not a few places in the world, women are born with several disadvantages on their backs. ☹

asr335704

Pedro_P 26-7-2019 11:39 AM
Generally, newspapers or news sources use local correspondents to write these articles... It would ...

I agree. While it is known that many places in India have skewed or imbalanced sex ratio, it is always good if such news are backed by proper and reliable data.

chanakyakripa

what is the point of concern is that such a report have been published at all without verifying the data at hand. such false/wrong data can lead to several wrong interpretations. however, still the craving for male child and illegal sex determination of foetus is a big concern.

ssangra

Very true in all respects. Have personally known people who aborted girl children before they were born and this was done at vague medical centres and they do it despite good advice not to and then there are the idiot males who also  produce a battery of girls in hope of a boy gets born at the other end of the spectrum

themaskeditor

Report may not have been verified, but the fact remains that many families in India want boys. It is also a big mistake of the elder ladies in the house, being ladies they do not want girls to take birth.

This is very shameful, partly also because of bad treatment given to girls. As a society we have to change our attitude.

I personally know a few people when they were sad because of a girl was born, and they had a huge carving for boys. All the while the lady was pregnant they used to address the baby as boy only. Finally after the delivery they were dejected.

It is also because of partiality on boys, the boys don't respect girls. This has to change or else the day is not far that many boys will fight it out for a single girls.

But this also happens in China, and now the problem boys in China face is there are not enough girls for boys to marry.

parivijesh100

One must understand that nature gas deviced a balanced way. Both girls & boys are important to maintain this balance.