By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Asian Centre for Human Rights while releasing its report, “Female foeticide in Tribal India: India’s last vestige falls” stated that the Scheduled Tribes (STs) who are assumed not to indulge in sex selection because of their egalitarian practices and absence of dowry are increasingly indulging in sex selection for son preference.
“The STs consistently had much higher Child Sex Ratio (CSR). As per 2011 census, the CSR of the STs was higher than other social groups such as the Scheduled Castes (933) and general population (910). However, the CSR of the STs decreased from 972 as per 2001 census to 957 in Census 2011, a fall of 15 points which is higher than overall decline in the CSR of the country which was 8 points i.e. from 927 as per 2001 Census to 919 as per 2011 Census. Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh with CSR of 889, Longleng district of Nagaland with CSR of 885 and Senapati district of Manipur with CSR of 893 which are fully tribal inhabited districts had the worst CSR among the STs as per 2011 census.”- stated Asian Centre for Human Rights.
The report stated that the government of India had not implemented any specific schemes for retention of girl child and enforcement of the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDT) in tribal dominated districts. The absence of any scheme for retention of girl child and absolute non-enforcement of the PC&PNDT Act in one hand and easy availability of diagnostic tools for sex determination on the other hand critically contributed to the fall in CSR among the STs.
The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), the flagship programme for retention of the girl child, is not being properly implemented in tribal dominated districts. The tribal dominated districts such as Longleng district of Nagaland and Senapati district of Manipur had failed to utilise any of the funds released to them under the BBBP during 2015-2016.
Asian Centre for Human Rights called upon the Government of India to launch a separate scheme to address fall of the CSR among the Scheduled Tribes and further to extend the Beti Bachao Beti Padao scheme in the tribal areas under the 5th and 6th Schedules to the Constitution of India.
