By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: At a time when atrocities and crimes are increasing against women day by day and when in many areas of the country still it is believed having a girl child is bad omen, Assam has set up an encouraging example with a healthy growth of sex ratio. According to the primary census abstract which was released on Thursday by the director of census operations, Assam revealed that the state has an increase of 28 female children whereas India’s total rate shows a decrease of 8 girl children.
With 962 female children against 1000 male Assam has been placed itself in the third position in the entire country just after Chhattisgarh (969) and Kerala (964). Altogether, Assam has 958 females per 1000 male in according to the 2011 census against 935 in 2001.
“It’s a very encouraging sign as far the state is concerned. At a time when the national figure shows decrease in the number of girl children. Assam has shown an opposite figure,” said R K Das, the director of the census operations after releasing the report on Thursday in Guwahati.
Three Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) namely Baksa with 974, Udalguri with 973 followed by Chirang with 969 dominated the scene in the state.
The lowest sex ratio was observed in Dima Hasao district with 932 females. As far as child sex ratio is concerned, India has shown a decrease of 8 female children to be at 919 against 927 in 2001 whereas Assam’s rate is 962 in per 1000 male children.
However, the matter of concern for the state is the decline of workers in agriculture sector. Altogether, the sector has 49.3 per cent of total workers witnessed a decline of 3 per cent in 2011. The cultivators alone were decreased by 5.2 per cent with 33.9 in 2011 against 39.1 in 2001.