Back in 2011, the census revealed that Jhunjhunu is the worst district in Rajasthan in terms of sex ratio but now the place has progressed remarkably with the highest sex ratio in the entire state. In a span of 7 years, the sex ratio of the district went from 837 girls per 1,000 girls to 955 girls per 1,000 boys. The change is not just positive but quite impressive as well.
Once seen as the district with poorest sex ratio in the state, the place is said to have made this huge leap because of the efforts on a focused crackdown on ultrasound centers carrying out prenatal sex determination. Further, the grassroot interventions at the community level have also helped a great deal in steering a change in the mindsets.
In the past few years, the sex ratio to birth (SRB) has been the focal point of the Jhunjhunu administration. Discussing the statistical figures, it was 880 girls per 1000 boys in the year 2014 between January to December. In 2015, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) program was launched that further reinforced the efforts and the figure reached to 901:1000.
Later, the SRB rose to 933 in 2016 and then 955 in the year 2017. In the last two years, the district has won many accolades from the ministry of women and child development. It had also won among the ten districts that were awarded by the ministry on the National Girl Child Day for implementing the BBBP scheme in 2016. Besides, it was also given the Nari Shakti Puruskar in 2017 for effective community engagement.
The district is involved in carrying out several efforts at the grassroot level like conducting public hearings every Tuesday and discussions by women on such topics on Fridays. Focusing on 20 villages with the lowest child sex ratio, the volunteers have been asked to prepare a “grievance redressal register”. Moreover, the district administration has facilitated 1247 mothers and the girl child.
Moving on, the district chose 2 high performing girls from financially weak backgrounds and made them district collector for a day as a symbolic gesture. The girl students are also taken to government offices for their educational trips to make them understand the functioning of the Centre and state government.
