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The important Human Development Indicators (HDI) which reflect the current status of the girl child are given in the table below:
Important HDI of Girl Child
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Indicator
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Males
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Females
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Persons
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Population(0-6)
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81,911,041
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75,952,104
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157,863,145
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Sex Ratio (0-6)
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927/1000
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IMR (April 2006)
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58 percent
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Child Mortality Rate (0-4 y)
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18.6%
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20.6 percent
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19.5 percent
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Anemia (15-19 y)
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|
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58 percent
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Literacy Rate
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75.26
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53.67 percent
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64.84 percent
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Class I-5
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35.85
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33.72 percent
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34.89 percent
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Class I-VIII
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52.28
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53.45 percent
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52.79 percent
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Class I-X
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60.72
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64.97 percent
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62.58 percent
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A perusal of the various indicators reflects the dismal situation of the girl child. The sharp decline in female sex ratios over the years suggests that female foeticide and infanticide might be primarily responsible for this phenomenon followed by general neglect of the girl child. The sex ratio has been dwindling even in States like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat which are supposed to be economically prosperous. Female infanticide has been reported from parts of Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The magnitude of girl child mortality is reflected from the fact that every year, about 12 million girls are born in India; a third of these girls die in the first year of their life; three million, or 25 per cent do not survive to see their fifteenth birthday. The child mortality rate between 0-4 years for girl child is 20.6%, two percent more than that of boys (18.6%).
The root cause of malnutrition amongst girls is not just poverty and lack of nutritious food,
but also like lack of value attached to girls. Adolescent girls are highly susceptible to anaemia, which is responsible for miscarriage, still births, premature births, low birth- weight babies and maternal mortality during child birth.
Discriminatory feeding practices reveal:
- Girl’s nutritional intake is inferior in quality and quantity;
- Boys have access to more nutritious food;
- Boys are given first priority with the available food within the family;
- Female infants are breastfed less frequently, for shorter duration and over a shorter period than boys.
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Participants