Expressing concern over the declining child sex ratio, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath on Thursday said the problem was not confined to a specific region but had spread across the country.

“The child sex ratio has come down from 927 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001 to 914:1000 in 2011...It is a cause of concern as the problem is no longer confined to a specific geographic area but is increasingly being reported from all parts of the country, including the Southern states,” she said here.

Tirath was speaking at the first Consultative Meeting of the High Level Committee on Status of Women.

Status of women

The Minister also expressed concern over the entrenched patriarchal and societal constructs, which she stated places a women’s status several notches below that of men.

The Minister, however, said women had made progress economically, socially and politically in the last few decades and have benefited from the general economic development and the gender-specific and gender-related policies of the Government.

Literacy

There has been an improvement in women literacy rates from 53.67 per cent in 2001 to 65.45 per cent in 2011, she said.

The Maternal Mortality Rate has also reduced from 301 per lakh live births in 2001-03 to 212 in 2007-09. Female infant mortality rate has come down from 68 in 2001 to 48 in 2011, Tirath said.

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