CHANDIGARH, June 19 -- Haryana has recorded a sex ratio at birth (SRB) of 906 girls per 1,000 boys up to May 2025, according to Civil Registration System (CRS) data, revealing a worrying trend in gender imbalance despite campaigns like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and crackdowns on gender determination tests and misuse of medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits. The cumulative sex ratio at birth in Haryana up to May 2024 was 912. It declined to 905 in September, while the state's annual SRB in 2024 stood at 910 female births per 1,000 male births. Last year's SRB was the lowest after 2016 that had prompted the authorities to set up a special task force (STF), leading to seizures of massive quantities of the MTP kits and cancellation of MTP licence of a doctor in Kurukshetra and Karnal. As per provisional figures that excludes delayed registrations, some districts--particularly urban and industrial hubs-- continue to lag significantly. From January to May 2025, 1,90,721 births (1,00,070 male and 90,651 female) were registered across the state. A handful of districts reported encouraging trends. Panchkula emerged as the best performer with SRB of 975--- 2,240 girls born against 2,298 boys---between January and May. It was followed by Fatehabad ( 970), Yamunanagar (940), and Kurukshetra (933). Nuh recorded the highest number of births (10,048 girls to 10,779 boys) in the state with an SRB of 932. Some of Haryana's most developed and urbanised districts posted alarmingly low SRBs. For instance, Gurugram recorded an SRB of 855--among the worst in the state--with 8,694 girls born against 10,168 boys. Faridabad's SRB stood at 898, Palwal at 874, Rohtak (883), Charkhi Dadri (859), Kaithal (870), and Sonepat (899). "These areas have better access to health services and education but continue to underperform when it comes to saving the girl child programme. This raises questions about the reach and impact of gender sensitisation efforts in affluent and urban communities," a senior health department functionary said, requesting anonymity. Districts where the SRB hovered around the state average include Ambala (900), Bhiwani (914), Hisar (913), Panipat (911), Mahendragarh (902), Rewari (903). Meanwhile, Charkhi Dadri and Jhajjar districts recorded the lowest number of birth registrations--1,987 and 3,691 respectively. Alarmed by the low birth registrations, additional chief secretary (ACS-Health) Sudhir Rajpal has called for 100% registration of births, especially in districts, including Gurugram, Palwal and Faridabad, where underreporting of child birth is common. Rajpal has also instructed deputy chief medical officers to organise birth registration camps in slum areas and mobilise inter-district inspection teams to investigate any complaints of illegal abortions or sex selection. A senior official in the state's health department, acknowledging the mixed outcome of the SRB so far, said: "It is encouraging to see progress in some districts. But the poor show in places like Gurugram, Faridabad and Rohtak is deeply concerning. We must intensify monitoring of prenatal diagnostic centres and further intensify our crackdown against those involved in gender determination tests. The results, positive or otherwise, of the ongoing crackdown will be visible in December." Under what is called "SAHELI" initiative of the state's strategy to combat female foeticide, health department has attached one "Saheli"--anganwari/asha worker or ANM--with each 53,000 pregnant women, who already have one or more daughters, to provide counselling under a targeted monitoring programme. Sources say it has emerged that 2,423 pregnant women in question have undergone abortions in the past few months due to various reasons, including failure of contraceptives etc. "But what has set the alarm bells ringing is the lack of convincing explanation to ascertain the reasons behind 282 women with whom anganwadi workers were attatched and opted for abortions," said an official. A day after the state task force (STF) led by ACS (health) Sudhir Rajpal decided to issue show cause notices to anganwadi workers in areas where cases of illegal abortions were reported--involving pregnant women who already had one or more daughters---the initial findings of the women and child development department reveal that these 282 cases pertain to 13 districts. "The show cause notices are being issued to 282 anganwadi workers due to their failure to prevent or report illegal abortions in their designated areas," a government functionary said. "The authorities are ascertaining whether the abortions in question were sex selective or due to some other genuine reasons," they added. The anganwadi workers under the scanner are 57 each in Jind and Karnal districts, Hisar (43), Yamunanagar (28), Sirsa (20), Faridabad (14), Jhajjar (12), Panipat and Rewari (10 each), nine each in Bhiwani and Gurugram, Fatehabad (7), and Panchkula (6), officials said....