Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Passport-seekers affecting TN’s sex ratio
Large No. Of Adults Seeking Jobs Abroad Registering Births Every Year Cited As Reason


Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com 29.01.2019

Tamil Nadu’s alarmingly low sex ratio at birth of 840 in 2016 according to the civil registration system could be due to a large number of adults registering their birth in recent years in a bid to get passports made. According to National Health Mission officials in Tamil Nadu, if only the births in a particular year are considered, the state’s sex ratio at birth was a much healthier 932 in 2016.

Ever since it became mandatory to produce a birth certificate in order to get a passport made, a large number of adults seeking jobs abroad have been registering their births every year. Most of these are men. In 2016, for instance, registrations done more than a year after birth accounted for 1.42 lakh in Tamil Nadu. Of these, over a lakh were males and less than 41,000 were females.

This skew in registrations which gets counted in the total civil registration of births in a year, the officials explained, is what is depressing the sex ratio of births in the CRS. Including such registrations done after the first year in total birth registrations in a year and calling the ratio derived from it “sex ratio at birth” has led to the misleading statistic.

According to the state’s Health Management & Information System, the actual sex ratio at birth after dipping steadily from 923 in 2012-13 has been going up from 2016 onwards.

“The practice of Lok Adalats issuing direction for birth registration to be issued also led to a large number of men getting their births registered through this route. In 2015, this practice was stopped by the courts and it was decided that birth certificates will be issued only after an enquiry by the revenue department. Thus, the process has become more stringent and this is reflected in the sudden fall in registration of births after one year in 2017. From more than one lakh such registrations in a year it has fallen to just over 31,000,” explained a senior official of the National Health Mission in Tamil Nadu.

He added that his department was closely monitoring second trimester abortions to prevent sex selective abortions and cracking down on errant ultrasound clinics.

“By cracking down on the errant ones we are allowing the good ones to run without any hindrance. This is important for maternal health as timely ultrasound also helps bring down maternal mortality, which is also one of our important targets,” he explained. He added that Tamil Nadu’s sex ratio at birth is expected to touch 950 by 2021, close to the natural sex ratio of 952 girls for every 1,000 boys born.

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