CHENNAI: The trend of declining child sex ratio (CSR) could be arrested only if the functioning of the private hospitals and scan centres are properly recorded and regulated, experts said here on Thursday.“We can get the data on abortions, live births and deaths in government hospitals through the Right to Information Act . But can we get such information from the private hospitals? No. So we must campaign to bring the Private Hospitals Regulation Act into force. Till then, it will be impossible to plug the holes on the trend of declining CSR,” said Mina Swaminathan, senior member of the Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA), said addressing a State-level consultation on Census 2011-CSR data.The CSR had declined drastically in districts such as Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Perambalur and Villupuram as per 2011 Census, though it had marginally increased for the whole of TN. Tiruvallur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Tiruchy, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Kanyakumari districts have also showed a marginal decline in CSR. “Private hospitals are beyond the reach of law or anyone. I think the main reason for the decline in CSR in Chennai and other districts is the unregulated functioning of scan centres,” said Ossie Fernandes, co-convener of CASSA.On the CSR trends, social activist Dr Sabu George said, “Salem had the lowest CSR of 830 girls for 1,000 boys in the whole country in 1991. This, along with Dharmapuri district with 905 girls and Namakkal with 891 girls made up a cluster. If we look at the pattern of spread now, the trend of declining CSR has spread to the neighbouring districts of Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Perambalur and Villupuram. This spatial spread is alarming, though the earlier hotspot districts of Salem, Dharmapuri and Namakkal have shown marked improvement in their CSR due to the concerted work done by the government and NGOs.”George also said that non-availability of data from the private hospitals was a cause of worry and sought measures to bring them under the framework of law.The day-long discussion ended in a consensus to start off a campaign for the registration of all pregnancies, abortions, births and deaths, which will go long way in developing a healthy CSR.
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