Ranchi, Jharkhand | October | 13, 2016 :: Jharkhand has 72 lakhs girl younger than 18 years. They are the future of a vibrant society and a stronger demographic dividend forthe state. Yet the ambition for gender equality in the Sustainable Development Goals highlights the existence of disadvantage and discrimination borne by girls everywhere on a daily basis. Only through explicit focus on collecting and analyzing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data, and using these data to inform key policy and program decisions, we can adequately measure and understand the opportunities and challenges girls face, and identify and track progress towards solutions to their most pressing problems.
While we can commend the ambition and potential of the SDGs for girls, and recognize how girls’ progress is not good only for girls, but also for families, communities and society at large, we must also take this opportunity to consider how existing gaps in data on girls and young women, lack of systematic analysis, and limited use of existing data significantly limit our ability to monitor and communicate the wellbeing and progress of half of humanity.
Issues affecting girls younger than 18 years:
Jharkhand has a declining child sex ratio with 919 girls against per 1000 boys, one in every three girl is married before 18 years of age (census 2011), Age specific attendance ratio is lower for girl child (90:76, NSSO 2014), more than half of the girls are anaemic 56 % (NFHS 2006), Infant mortality rate for the girl child is 36 as against 32 for boys (SRS 2014), stunting is higher for girl child 49.9 as against 44.7 for boys (RSOC 2013-14).
As SDG implementation gets underway, including the development and rollout of indicators to track progress at global, regional and national levels, there is a critical unfinished agenda on ensuring availability and use of high-quality, timely and reliable data on girls’ progress, including for those living in poverty or with a disability.
Progress of girls, Progress for all
- An extra year of primary school for girls can increase their eventual adult wages by 10 to 20 per cent, and an extra year of secondary school increases them by 15 to 25 per cent.
- If all girls completed secondary education, under-five child mortality could be cut in half.
- Studies from India show that delaying adolescent pregnancies could have increased national economic productivity by US$7.7 billion dollars (51590 crores).
Action for advance progress of girls
- Narrow the gender gaps byenhancing effectiveness of girl child schemes like the MukhyaMantriLadliLaxmi Yojana;
- Ensuring participation of women in standing committees of Gram Sabha, incorporating women’s’ issues in Gram Panchayat Development plan thereby, improving access to education, health and nutrition sanitation and safe spaces for girls.
- Enhance capacity of governments departments and institutions to collect, analyze and disseminate gender data across the age spectrum to improve statistics on gender-based violence, adolescent pregnancy and reproductive health, informal employment, entrepreneurship, unpaid work, and other priorities for girls and young women.
- Disaggregate data on boys and girls and along other dimensions (e.g., ethnicity, age, income-level, disability, location, migration status, etc.) for better understanding that which children and adolescents are most disadvantaged and where.
- Create policy and development dialogue around the gender to build consensus for coherent and convergent action
Indicators | Jharkhand | India | Data Source |
Population girls below 18 years
Population boys below 18 years |
70.3 lakh
75.6 lakh |
Census, 2011
|
|
Population of boys of 0-6 years
Population of girls of 0-6 years |
26.2 lakh
27.6 lakh |
Census, 2011 | |
Child Sex ratio (0-6 years)-girls per 1000 boys | 948 | 943 | Census, 2011 |
Female Literacy Rate (%)
Male Literacy Rate Total Literacy Rate |
55.42
76.84 66.41 |
64.6
80.9 73.0 |
Census, 2011
Census, 2011 Census, 2011 |
Education | |||
Elementary Education (Enrolment)
(No of girls per 1000 boys) |
974 | NA | DISE, 2015-16 |
Average Annual dropout rate at primary level (%)
Boys Girls |
5.91 5.03 |
NA |
DISE, 2015-16 |
Transition rate (%)
Boys Girls |
80.76 77.66 |
NA |
DISE, 2015-16 |
Retention rate at Elementary level (%)
Boys Girls |
46.06 47.79 |
NA |
DISE, 2015-16 |
Child Protection | |||
Child Worker (5-14 years) (%)
Boys Girls |
4.9 4.8 |
Census, 2011
|
|
Children aged below 5 years whose birth is registered (%)
Male Female |
35.8 33.9 |
71.3 72.7 |
RSOC,2013-14 |
Mean age at marriage(yrs.)
Female Male |
19.8 23.4 |
21.1 25.0 |
RSOC,2013-14 |
Women aged 20-24 married before age 18(in %) | 33.4 | 30.3 | RSOC,2013-14 |
Adolescent Girls (10-19 years) (%)
Adolescent girls ever married (age 10-19) Adolescent girls ever married (age 10-14) Adolescent girls ever married (age 15-19) |
7.3 0.2 17.0 |
6.4 0.3 12.8 |
RSOC,2013-14 |
Health | |||
Infant Mortality rate (IMR) (Per 1000 live births)
Boys Girls Total |
32 36 34 |
37 40 39 |
SRS-2014 |
Under 5 Mortality rate (U5MR) (Per 1000 live births)
Boys Girls Total |
40 48 44 |
42 49 45 |
SRS-2014 |
Neo-natal Mortality Rate(Per 1000 live births) | 25 | 26 | SRS-2014 |
Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)(Per 100,000 live births) | 208 | 167 | SRS-2013 |
Nutrition | |||
((%) of children aged 0-59 months) | |||
Stunted (Height for age below-2SD) (%)
Boys Girls |
44.7 49.9 |
39.5 37.8 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Severely Stunted (Height for age below-3SD) (%)
Boys Girls Total |
NA NA 23.7 |
17.6 16.9 17.3 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Wasted (Weight for height below -2SD) (%)
Boys Girls Total |
NA NA 15.6 |
15.6 14.5 15.1 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Severely Wasted (Weight for height below -3SD) (%)
Boys Girls Total |
NA NA 3.7 |
4.8 4.4 4.6 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Underweight (Weight for age below -2SD) (%)
Boys Girls Total |
NA NA 42.1 |
30.0 28.7 29.4 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Severely Underweight (Weight for age below -2SD) (%)
Boys Girls Total |
NA NA 16.1 |
10.0 8.9 9.4 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Children aged 0-23months breastfed Immediately/within an hour of birth (%)
Boys Girls |
33.4 31.9 |
43.8 45.4 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Children aged 0-5 months who were exclusively breastfed(%)
Boys Girls |
62.9 66.1 |
65.0 64.8 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Children aged 6-8 months who were fed complementary foods(%)
Boys Girls |
61.3 44.2 |
52.9 47.8 |
RSOC, 2013-14 |
Anaemia among women of 15-49 years (%)
Anaemia among adolescent girls of 15-19 years (%) |
70.6
67.2 |
56.2
55.8 |
NFHS-3 (2005-06) |
WASH | |||
Using improved sanitation facility (%) Male |
Female
Total
14.7
17.1
15.0
NA
NA
41.8
RSOC,2013-14