PATNA, June 18 -- Bihar has slid to being the sixth worst state in terms of sex ratio at birth (SRB), which is the number of females per 1,000 males, showing a decline by two points from 900 in 2019-21 to 898 in 2020-22, as per the Sample Registration System (SRS) data for the reference year 2022, released on June 12, this year, said officials on Tuesday. The drop in sex ratio in the state, when the national average has improved to 914, up by one point as compared to the 2021, is a reflection of Bihar's faltering Beti Bachao (save the girl child) campaign, said experts. "The social welfare and the health departments both are to be blamed for their lack of effort in spreading awareness about the girl child, and failure to strictly implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, aimed at preventing female foeticide and arresting the declining sex ratio in Bihar," said Dr Nigam Prakash Narain, a former professor and head of paediatrics, Patna Medical College.. The drop in sex ratio, said officials, was a pointer to female foeticide and illegal sex determination being done at ultrasonography centres in Bihar, averred experts, The SRS data of the last five years shows that Bihar performed best on the SRB parameter in 2021, when it recorded a sex ratio of 900, (national average was 913), an improvement by five points over the previous year 2020, when the state's sex ratio was 895 (India 907), the same as 2016. However, in 2019, the sex ratio dropped by one point to 894 as against India's 904. Gujarat (897), Maharashtra (888), Haryana (883), Delhi (864) and Uttarakhand (857) are among states, having poorer sex ratio than Bihar and Punjab, as per SRS data. State officials, however, relied more on its caste census data, which shows that the sex ratio in Bihar has gone up from 918 in 2011 to 953 in 2023. They said the caste census data was more authentic as it was based on actual count. Sudha Varghese, Bihar's leading feminist voices who espouses the cause of the Musahar community, also doubted the survey data, as she said, "Though it is a discouraging fact that the state's sex ratio has come down, I am not sure how seriously the survey was done and how dependable is its data." "I can say for sure that the sex ratio has not come down in the musahar community, which I work with. My community does not go for sex determination. With safe institutional delivery facilities, cases of children dying at birth are few," added Varghese, a social worker. Overall, India had a sex ratio of 914 females per 1000 males at birth during the period 2020-22 (3-years average). Kerala and Chhattisgarh had the highest sex ratio at birth with 970 females per 1000 males, while Uttarakhand has the lowest sex ratio at birth with 857 females per 1000 males. When categorised by residence, the urban areas had a higher sex ratio than the rural areas in nine bigger States and UTs. In Delhi, the sex ratio was significantly lower in urban areas compared to rural areas. The SRS is a large-scale demographic survey conducted every year by the Office of the Registrar General, India, in all states and Union territories....