By IANS,
Chandigarh : There has been a healthy rise in the male female ratio in the union territory (UT) of Chandigarh, courtesy its slums.
“There was a time when the sex ratio in Chandigarh was on the decline but now it has started improving, and the credit goes to the slum colonies here,” Kavita Talwar, district family welfare officer, told reporters here Thursday.
Talwar added: “According to a survey conducted by the UT health department, in 2001, the sex ratio was 845 females to 1,000 males. It has risen to 882 in 2007.”
In its survey in 2007, the health department of Chandigarh covered various slum rehabilitation colonies of the city like Colony No 5, Sarangpur village, Bapu Dham colony and Vikas Nagar.
“The findings were surprising as in slums the child sex ratio was 901 females against 1,000 males whereas only 847 and 853 in urban and rural areas respectively. The overall child sex ratio was 882 in 2007,” Talwar said.
The population of Chandigarh is nearly 1.1 million, out of which 300,000 live in slums.
Talwar said: “The base line survey, conducted by the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in 2006, revealed that the sex ratio in slums in the age group 0-12 months was 1,500 females against 1,000 males, while it was only 913 in urban and 546 in rural areas of the city.”
“In the same survey, the sex ratio of children in the age group of 1-6 years was 1,030 in slums against 780 in urban and 1,037 in rural areas,” Talwar added.