New Delhi, March 31
India’s obsession with the male child stood out in all its brazenness today, with the provisional data from Census 2011 scripting a shocking tale of missing daughters. The population in the age group 0-6 years stands at 158.8 million today — five million less than what we had in 2001.

Case of the missing daughters

Clearly, the girl children are missing, with the country today posting a child sex ratio (defined as the number of girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 years group) of 914 as against 927 in 2001 — the lowest since 1961. The dip is visible even in the hitherto gender-neutral states and UTs, including Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Puducherry and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. All these states which led the child sex ratio table in 2001 have recorded declines this year.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which had the highest child sex ratio of 979 in 2001, has slipped down 55 points to 924; Chhattisgarh is down 11 points from 975 to 964; Meghalaya and Puducherry have lost three and two points to finish at a ratio of 970 and 965, respectively.

But the northern states continue to lead the pack with their low sex ratios and sex selective traditions. Haryana has this year overtaken Punjab as the worst state in the list with the lowest girl child ratio of 830, followed by Punjab at 846, Delhi at 866 and Chandigarh at 867.

Jammu and Kashmir, while entering the dubious club this year, has shocked the nation with an 82 point decline in the sex ratio for children. It is down to 859 from 941.

In the north, Punjab has shown the best improvement with a 48-point increase in the ratio (846 as against 798 in 2001). Haryana’s performance is better with 11 points plus since 2001 while Chandigarh, with a gain of 22 points, has recorded a ratio of 867 as against 845 in 2001. Himachal has also risen up in the table improving 10 points to finish at 906.

But the bottommost districts on child sex ratio lie in Haryana — Jhajjar being the worst in India with a meager 774 girls per 1,000 boys and Mahendragarh following it at 778. In 2001, Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib was the worst of the lot.

Among the gender sensitive states Mizoram tops the list with its ratio of 971 followed by Meghalaya with 970. Himachal’s Lahaul Spiti is the most girl child friendly district in India with its highest child sex ratio of 1,013, followed by Tawang in Arunachal, which has 1,005 girls for every 1,000 boys.

But most of the other states, including Delhi, which is down two points from 2001 to register at 866, have disappointed. Madhya Pradesh is down from 932 to 912; Daman and Diu from 926 to 909; UP from 916 to 899; Maharashtra from 913 to 883; Rajasthan from 909 to 883 and Uttarakhand by 22 points from 908 to 886.

New Delhi, March 31
In continuation with the past Census trends, overall literacy rate in India improved further to settle at 74.04 per cent, up 9.2 points from the last decade. This is not however the best jump in a given decade considering the highest growth of literacy rate -- 13.17 per cent -- was recorded between 1991 and 2001.

The difference between male and female literacy is also on the decline, resting at 16.68 per cent as per today’s Census figures, as against corresponding declines by 24.84 per cent in 1991 and 21.70 per cent in 2001.

That apart, the good news is that 10 states and UTs, including Chandigarh, Delhi, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Tripura, Goa, Daman and Diu, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, this year achieved the literacy rate of 85 per cent, the target the Planning Commission had set for 2011-12.

These states have realised another goal too: that of reducing the gender disparity in literacy rates to 10 percentage points or less. In Chandigarh where the overall literacy rate is 86.43 per cent, the gender gap is just 9 per cent, the respective male and female literacy rates being 90.54 and 81.38 per cent.

Percentage differences in the male and female literacy for the other northern states as per Census 2011 are 14.23 (Himachal); 10.14 (Punjab); 17.63 (Uttarakhand); 18.71 (Haryana) and 11 (Delhi). Further, the states with overall literacy rates higher than the national average include Himachal (83.78), Delhi (86.34), Punjab (76.68), Haryana (76.64) and Uttarakhand (79.63).

J&K has a lower literacy rate than the all-India level of 68.64 per cent; the difference in the male-female literacy rates here is also a whopping 20.25, higher than even Bihar, where the literacy indicators are the lowest at a rate of 63.82 per cent, so is the gender gap at 20.03 per cent points.

Nationally, the literacy rate for males has shot up to 82.14 per cent (up by 6.9 per cent as against a corresponding increase of 11.72 per cent over 1991-2001) while that for females has gone to 65.46 -- an improvement of 11.8 per cent over 2001 (as against 14.87 per cent over the previous decade).

Credit goes to women who have outnumbered men among the 21,77,00,941 literates added in the last 10 years; 11,00,69, 001 of these are women. So far as literacy goes, Kerala leads the list with a rate of 93.91 per cent and the lowest literacy gender gap of 4 per cent. It has the highest female literacy rate of 91.98 per cent in India, the lowest being for Bihar.

New Delhi, March 31
The BJP hopes to double its tally in the Assam Assembly this time, thanks to the real possibility of Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) cutting into the Congress’ Muslim vote bank.

The BJP is concentrating mainly on Barak valley in Silchar district, where most BJP leaders led by president Nitin Gadkari are currently campaigning. In 2006, the BJP had won 10 seats. “This time we hope to double our tally to 20,” said BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Husain.

The Barak valley has 15 seats and is inhabited so overwhelmingly by Bengalis that they have not a single Assamese newspaper circulated in the valley. Therefore, the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) has virtually left out this region. Logically then the Congress should have benefitted from this situation as the area has a very large Muslim population, traditionally a Congress vote bank.

But that is where Badruddin Ajmal, a perfume merchant from Mumbai and currently the AIUDF MP from Dhubri, comes in. “He may not win many seats for himself but he will damage the Congress in a big way,” observed a BJP leader. And, the Congress loss in this area will directly benefit the BJP since there is no other political force there, he explained.

Ajmal and the BJP are banking on the current Muslim disenchantment with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi -- they perceive him as someone similar to the Shiv Sena, said a BJP leader. Such is the Muslims’s diffidence with the Congress that important leaders like former chief minister Anwara Taimur have joined the AIUDF.

The BJP’s claims apart, Ajmal recently made a giveaway statement saying he was expelled from the Jamiatul Ulemae Hind (JuH) by its president Arshad Madani for working against the Congress.

But apart from the tacit support of Ajmal’s AIUDF, the BJP has not much to speak of in Assam with election in-charge Varun Gandhi ostensibly abandoning the campaign halfway because of his marriage.

There is also widespread discontent among sitting BJP MPs and MLAs over distribution of tickets by election in-charge Vijay Goel with charges of tickets being sold to the highest bidder. The party’s stock is so low that the AGP resisted aligning with the BJP despite its president Chandermohan Patwary supporting the alliance.

The high decibel campaigning by top BJP leaders notwithstanding, the party BJP might be barely manage to retain even its present seats, according to one news analyst.

New Delhi, March 31
“It appears as if to economise was criminal and to splurge was civil.” This was the observation made by the high-level Shunglu Committee, which found a loss of over Rs 1,600 crore in construction and renovation of venues for Commonwealth Games by different government agencies.

In its fourth report on Games venues, the committee has blamed senior officials of civic and construction government agencies like Central Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority, Public Works Department, New Delhi Municipal Council and RITES among others for inordinate delays, inflated prices and rigged tender process.

The committee found Rs 800 crore as cost of delay in completing construction of all the Games and training venues across the national capital and said that financial oversight by different agencies resulted in undue gain of over Rs 250 crore to contractors. — PTI

Chandigarh, March 31
In a landmark judgment that would affect hundreds of disabled ex-servicemen, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) today quashed government instructions that had denied benefits to those who had retired before 1996. The instructions had placed them at a financial disadvantage vis-à-vis their civilian counterparts as well as similarly placed ex-servicemen who had retired since 1996.

Disposing of a bunch of 40 petitions, the tribunal’s bench comprising Justice NP Gupta and Lt-Gen NS Brar held that pre-1996 defence retirees would also be entitled to the same benefits that were granted to pre-1996 civilian retirees.

The Fifth Pay Commission had introduced the concept of “broad-banding” disability pension to overcome rigid mathematical calculations and subjectivity of medical boards while assessing the percentage of disability. The concept was initiated for all Central government pensioners.

The concept provided that people with disability less than 50 per cent would be granted pension by considering the disability percentage as 50 per cent, those with disability between 50-75 per cent would be granted a disability element of 75 per cent and those with above 75 per cent disability would be granted the benefits of 100 per cent disability.

The Department of Pensions (DoP) accordingly, had issued instructions in February 2000, implementing the broad-banding policy, initially only for post-1996 retirees. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had also issued policy instructions with regard to post-1996 defence retirees in January 2001.

Later, in September 2001, the DoP implemented the broad-banding benefits for pre-1996 retirees also, with effect from January 1, 1996. The MoD however did not issue further implementation instructions related to pre-1996 retirees and denied the benefit to pre-1996 defence retirees.

It was only in January 2010, almost a decade later, that these benefits were granted by the MoD, but these were made applicable only from July 1, 2009, while for civilians in the MoD, these had already been made applicable from January 1, 1996.

Discussing all aspects of the issue and the law laid down by the Supreme Court, the bench held that the cut-off date of July 1, 2009, did not stand the scrutiny of law and it artificially divided and created discrimination within a single homogenous group of disabled personnel.

Kolkata, March 31
Participating in an interactive session with the students in the city today, the Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee’s rubbished the Railway Minister and the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s charges against the CPM, which he alleged were false, fabricated and politically motivated. He claimed the CPM was the only party which was the ‘friend of the poor’ and would remain so whether it was in power or not. He advised the students not to be misled by Mamata’s false promises of job and free food and education to Muslims and other minorities.

In contravention of the Election Commission’s rules, the Chief Minister’s interactive session was organised at the premises of the St Andrew’s school at Garia (which is a part of his Jadavpore seat ) by the CPM’s students wing, the SFI. The opposition leader Partha Chatterjee said they had already brought to the EC’s notice about the Chief Minister’s violation of the commission’s rules and guidelines.

While the Chief Minister was taking part in the interactive session with the students, the TMC supremo today participated in the mass procession on the third day of her election campaign in the city. She did not address any meeting and the use of the microphone or use any school and official premises as per the EC’s guidelines

But the Chief Minister freely used the microphone in the meeting with the students at St Andrew’s school where he alleged that the UPA II was primarily responsible for the price rise and the country’s prevalent worsening economic and fiscal conditions. He said under the present system of governance the state government had a very little to do in dealing with the price hike of the essential items.

With regards to the Maoists activities in the Lalghar-Jangalmal- Jhargram areas, Bhattacharjee alleged that the TMC leader herself was a part of the Maoists of agitation, who had been playing a dangerous game in utilising the Maoists against the Left Front government for gaining her political interests. He criticised Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for still keeping Mamata in the Union Cabinet and encouraging her ‘Maoists’ activities, though they were sending the CRPF and other paramilitary forces to the state to combating the Maoists’ tirade against the CPM.

Ahmedabad, March 31
A police constable has lodged a complaint against a senior police officer and a member of the SIT, probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, of illegal confinement and coercion to register a false statement in connection with the sensitive case.

Vijay Kumar Mishra, posted at Shahibaug police station, accused Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Satish Verma, also a member of the SIT probing the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, of illegal confinement and duress.

The complainant also named two other police officers, accusing them of "threatening him to give statement according to their instructions" in connection with the case. Verma, however, could not be reached for his version.

Mishra was posted with the city Crime Branch in 2004 as a wireless operator of the official vehicle of the then assistant commissioner of police, Dr Narendra Amin, who was involved in the Ishrat encounter. — PTI

BRIEFLY

2G: Raja & co to stay in jail
NEW DELHI: The judicial custody of former Telecom minister A Raja, his former personal secretary RK Chandolia, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura and Swan telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, arrested for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, was on Thursday extended by a Delhi court till April 2, when the agency plans to file its first chargesheet in the case. — PTI

‘Pawar used Balwa’s plane’
MUMBAI: Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, Eknath Khadse on Thursday alleged that Union Minister Sharad Pawar had travelled on a plane to Dubai owned by a company of Shahid Balwa of DB Realty, under arrest in the 2G allocation scam. Khadse said Pawar, his wife Pratibha, Punjab Cricket Association president IS Bindra, BCCI president Shashank Manohar and his wife Varsha had flown on February 8, 2010 along with Balwa. — PTI