Why 2026 sex ratio at birth dropped in Haryana? Govt turns to priests for help

To begin with, the backbone of Haryana’s fight against female foeticide is a targeted digital and physical monitoring system. Grassroots Anganwadi workers and senior health officials systematically identify and log data on expectant mothers.

Lapse in monitoring

However, a severe lapse in supervisory vigilance, evidently led to major cracks in the system.

The tracking system is specifically designed to trigger alerts and heightened surveillance when a pregnant woman already has one or more girl children, as these cases statistically carry a higher risk for illegal sex selection.

In fact, to send a sharp message through the medical fraternity, Dr Sumita Misra, additional chief secretary (health and family welfare), ordered the immediate suspension and initiated disciplinary proceedings against four senior block-level medical officers for "poor performance and monitoring failures."

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The four senior medical officers were suspended for the lax monitoring of measures aimed at improving the sex ratio at birth rate. According to the government, the suspended medical officers consistently failed to track these high-risk medical histories or act on advance intelligence provided by ground workers.

This lack of oversight created blind spots where illegal sex-determination activities appeared to go unnoticed.

Frequent transfer of IAS officers

According to a report in The Print, officials, who have been closely associated with the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign since its 2015 launch, pointed to a lacunae in governance that created gaps in the programme.

According to them, the sustained success of the campaign between 2015 and 2019 (which saw the SRB rise from 879 to a peak of 923) relied heavily on continuous, iron-fisted monitoring by dedicated teams.

The frequent shuffling of top leadership disrupted institutional continuity, diluted accountability, and caused administrative fatigue, allowing enforcement of the PC-PNDT Act (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) to slacken at the district level.

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The example of IAS officer Sudhir Rajpal, who had served as additional chief secretary (health) was cited in the news report. He had actively formed a state task force to improve SRB. The committee, headed by Rajpal, ostensibly met every week, however, when Rajpal was transferred as home secretary in January this year, the weekly meetings simply stopped.

Extreme micro-regional collapses

While some districts like Rewari in Haryana showed improvements (rising to 906), certain pockets suffered catastrophic drops that dragged the entire state average down.

The most alarming example is Charkhi Dadri, where the SRB plummeted from 913 in 2025 to a staggering 768 in the first four months of 2026. Such an acute drop leans toward unchecked illegal ultrasound networks operating in the region.

The Charkhi Dadri collapse is particularly severe. The district, carved out of Bhiwani in 2016, recorded an SRB of 891 in its first full year of data in 2020; it climbed to 913 in 2025, and dropped to 768 in the first four months of 2026.

Funds diverted to ad campaigns

Another reason given for the drop, is that a lot of the BBBP funds in the beginning were pivoted to promotions, with a large share of campaign resources spent on advertising rather than implementation.

No reliable Census data

The only reliable data for the gender ratio is the one that comes after a Census operation, because this is collected door to door. However, no Census data has come after the 2011 Census, according to experts.

Moreover, demographers don’t accept the higher SRB figures reported in some districts in recent years, figures as high as 971 in Panchkula in 2025, as credible, since such dramatic improvements over short periods are not statistically plausible.

Cultural preferences

The slide down to 898 girls per 1,000 boys indicates that purely legal and administrative crackdowns (like police raids and tracking portals) have hit a saturation point against a stubborn cultural preference for a male child.

This regression is deeply tied to persistent cultural biases highlighted in the Union Health Ministry’s NFHS-5 report. The survey revealed that an overwhelming 81 per cent of men and women prefer their first or only child to be a boy.

This deep-seated preference for a son directly alters reproductive behavior; the data shows that women are statistically far more likely to adopt contraception if they have already secured a male heir, leaving families without sons to continue trying, often fuelling the underground market for illegal sex selection, said The Print report.

Crimes against women

Crimes against women remain insufficiently checked, and educated women are not being absorbed into the workforce are not doing much to help improve the conditions of women, which will help to boost the sex ratio.

Govt cracks down, measures taken

This administrative shortfall has compelled the state to resort to unusual measures and enlist religious leaders (Pandits, Maulvis, and Granthis) to counsel newlyweds. This is a tacit admission that the state's monitoring machinery failed to change deep-seated patriarchal mindsets on its own.

Pandits, maulvis, and granthis are being told to use marriage ceremonies as a platform to counsel and encourage newly-wed couples to reject sex selection.

In a high-level review meeting convened earlier this week, additional chief secretary (Health) Sumita Misra ordered all districts to immediately escalate raids and inspections to clamp down on illegal sex-determination networks. Emphasising a zero-tolerance approach, she stated that the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act must be enforced without exception.

Mishra has set a hard deadline, instructing officers to direct every enforcement effort toward improving the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) by the end of May 2026 compared to the corresponding period last year.

Medical teams have been ordered to closely monitor pregnancy cases, particularly among couples who already have one or more daughters—to enable early intervention and detect suspicious abortions. Warning that any future negligence will invite severe disciplinary action, Misra concluded that all enforcement activities and awareness campaigns must be widely publicized across print, electronic, and social media platforms to create a strong deterrent effect.

The genesis of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign lies in the 2011 Census, when Haryana’s SRB went down to 879, and its child sex ratio (0–6 years) hit a nation-worst 834.

From that deep drop, sustained enforcement drove a steady recovery—climbing from 876 in 2015 to a peak of 923 in 2019, and matching that recovery at 923 in 2025 following a pandemic-era dip.

However, the data from the first four months of 2026 threatens to wipe out years of progress.