After taking advantage of the various accomplishments of the state to rake up praise for themselves, ministers should now hide their faces in shame. Provisional population figures of Census 2011 reveal Maharashtra’s dismal future. A better literacy rate has clearly failed to affect awareness about the child sex ratio in the state. Despite a considerable jump in literacy, the state still has a pitiful child sex ratio. The Census figures released by the ministry of home affairs, has left little to cheer about.
The state has the second lowest child sex ratio in the country (after Haryana) at 883 girls per 1,000 boys, remarkably reduced from the previous decade’s, when it stood at 913.
The ratio, indicative of the future generation, stands lower than the country’s average of 914. The child sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0-6 years. Worse still, the figure is abysmally lower than the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states. Bihar sports a figure of 933, while MP stands at 912. The figures for Rajasthan and UP are 883 and 899.
The total child population (0-6 years) in the state stands at 12.8 million. This despite the fact the female literacy has seen a major boost from 67% to 75.5%. Conversely, male literacy has seen a hike of just 3%.
Moreover, the literacy rate gap between men and women has also seen a dip, with the male literacy rate up at 89.8%. The aggregate literacy rate in the state falls under the top ten literate states at 82.9%. In turn, the fertility rate (number of births per woman) has seen a dip from 14.1% to 11.4%.
While the child sex ratio has drastically plunged, the sex ratio (ratio of males to females in a population) has seen an upswing. The sex ratio in the state has increased from 922 to 925.
Moreover, the population in the state has risen to 11.23 crores, which is the second highest in the country. The state’s population is eight crore lesser than that of the most populated state, UP. However, the rate of population growth has decreased to 15.99%.
