Go girl! Delhi’s population fairly balanced, finally

For the first time in decades, the population of girls in Delhi is more than that of boys, according to a recent government survey. Experts and champions of the girl child cause said education and government schemes made the impossible possible.

Latest government data showed that for every 1,000 boys, 1,004 girls were born in Delhi in 2008. At last count in 2001, the figure for girls stood at 933 per 1,000 males.

Government officials also believe that schemes launched for welfare of girls played a big role. “The schemes launched by the government played a big role in this development,” said Satpal, a senior official of the woman and child development ministry of the Delhi government.

“We launched a project called Ladli under which each girl child from a poor family gets Rs1 lakh after passing class X standard. Such schemes helped increase the population of girls,” he said.

“The level of education has also improved in the city because of which people have stopped distinguishing between girl and boys,” said Nareen Sareen of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which have rallied long for revival of the girl child ratio.

“Another reason is that girls carry the stronger chromosome XX instead of the male XY, which leads to more live births of girls,” he said.

Religious organisations such as gurudwaras also played a major role in increasing the birth ratio. “We teach people that god wills all children to live and be loved. Many people who come to us are uneducated and only the sermon of god makes them accept the birth of girls,” Sarvpreet Singh, member of the city’s gurudwara prabandak committee. “Poor people always want a son, but when they hear that god willed them to have a girl child, they accept the baby as a gift of god,” Singh said.