Jhajjar District in Haryana has the Country's Worst sex ratio

At 774 girls per 1,000 boys, Jhajjar district in Haryana has the country's worst sex ratio in the 0-6 age group. Two of its villages-Behrana and Dhimana-have incredibly low sex ratios of 378 and 444 respectively. In the same age group, Haryana has over four lakh fewer girls than boys-4,07,370 to be precise. The gap was 3.31 lakh in the last census. Over all, the state has 1.35 crore men, compared to 1.18 crore women. A difference of 17.57 lakh. In 2001, the figure was 15.83 lakh.

The reasons are obvious. The assumption is that girls are a burden and it's coupled with burgeoning ultrasound centres-1,174 now-mostly functioning clandestinely. "You can get a woman for Rs 30,000 any day while a well-bred buffalo costs Rs 70,000," says Ajit Singh, 45, a bank employee. He gets approval from four other friends taking turns at smoking the hookah at a chaupal. "In fact, getting a girl could cost you less but you have to spend a lot on fares travelling to far off places such as Assam," adds Ranbir Yadav, 42, a local landlord.

Medically terminating an unwanted pregnancy costs between Rs 1,000 and Rs 20,000 and the mushrooming of non-registered centres has only fuelled the menace of female foeticide. Not surprising in a land where the saying goes: "Chora mare nirbhag ka, chori mare bhagwaan ki (son of a doomed dies, daughter of a blessed dies)."

What's shocking is that women are often responsible for continuing this ghastly practice. "Believe me, women are mostly responsible for it," says Jaipal Singh, 42, a former soldier and now a farmer in Behrana, one of the 6,759 villages in Haryana. "Nurses or auxiliary nurses and midwives (ANM) get in touch with pregnant women and take them for detection and then termination of pregnancy. We men are generally kept in the loop but don't care to know where it happens and how. Of course, they have our consent." Behrana has a population of nearly 8,000 and is dominated by Jats. In every neighbourhood here, one will find a serving or a retired soldier. The contempt for daughters is universal.

"Don't blame us," says Chand Ram, a Behrana octogenarian and an ex-soldier. "Blame the system. Even parents of MBAs or post-graduate girls with jobs have to give away a luxury car as dowry. What's the point in having girls? We don't need girls." Argues Umed Singh, 73, a farmer, "If we hate daughters, it's not without reason. What do you do with them? You send them out for education and they only bring a bad name to the family."

Strange in a state where several women have brought national glory. Haryana produced astronaut Kalpana Chawla. Miss India World Kanishtha Dhankar, 22, comes from Jhajjar. Though Mumbai is her birthplace, she has her roots in Kasni village and her father Raj Singh Dhankar, a commodore in the Indian Navy, often visits the village with his family. "It's an extremely sad state of affairs in Haryana that never gave women the status they deserved. Women can actually do much better than men. It's a cause of concern for all but people like you and me do nothing about it. We need to educate them," says Kanishtha Dhankar. Only last year, Haryana's girls had done the state proud by winning laurels at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and then the Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Absurd logic abounds in the region to justify the decreasing female population. In Dhimana, which has nearly 190 households, residents refuse to believe that foeticide is behind the skewed sex ratio. "It's God's gift that most of the children born in this village are boys," claims Dhimana village sarpanch Om Parkash, 70, a bachelor. Varinder Kumar Narula, 67, headmaster of Sunrise High School, offers another reason: "It has to do with diet. People eat well here and so give birth to boys."

The state officials though make a valid point. "The ultrasound centres are the single largest factor behind the skewed sex ratio," says Director General (Health Services) Narbir Singh. "We do our best but the problem is that most of these illegal activities take place in unregistered ultrasound centres that operate with small devices, making it difficult for us to catch them. But unless people have the will, the problem cannot be rooted out."

The will to tackle the problem doesn't seem to be there. "In 90 per cent of the cases where a couple is going for a second child, they opt for a sex-detection test," says Narinder Popli, 43, a Jhajjar businessman.

It was long believed that things would change with literacy. The latest census has deflated that theory as well. Jhajjar has a literacy rate of over 80 per cent. Mewat, with the lowest literacy rate of 56.1 per cent and considered the most backward district in the state, has Haryana's highest sex ratio at 906 females to 1,000 males.

"Literacy and modernisation have worsened matters. People are aware of abortion as well as sex determination options now and it has become much more acceptable now in society," says Ranbir Singh, consultant with Nilokheri-based Haryana Institute of Rural Development. "In places such as Jhajjar, land prices are very high and people don't want their daughters to get a share of property that they are legally entitled to."

The skewed sex ratio has had a social impact. It's causing a huge bride shortage. Theoretically, it should have checked dowry but a large number of those who get married demand hefty dowry. At many places, barter marriages are taking place; people marry their daughters and in return get a bride for their sons. Those who cannot get brides locally are buying them from Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and other poor states. "I know we won't get married and it's very depressing," says Manoj Kumar, 21. "We keep talking about it. But you need a job to get a wife. We don't see either of the two happening," adds Mandeep Ahlawat, 19.

The bias against girls, rooted in short-term economic considerations, is slowly but surely leaving behind long-term scars that Haryana will find difficult to heal. A lot of its men may just be forced to stay single with brides hard to come by.