TIMES NATIONTHE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015

DIDI INVITES BJP VETERANS JAITLEY, GADKARITO GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT IN BENGAL | 9

JAITLEY BRIEFS PRESIDENT PRANAB ON DETAILS OF LAND ORDINANCE | 13

Syria76.0

Colombia57.0

Nigeria

33.0

Sudan

34.0

Top 5

Iraq

30.7

Sudan

SyriaIraq

ColombiaNigeria

DR Congo27.2

Turkey9.5

South Sudan14.3

Somalia11.0

Afghanistan6.7

Ukraine6.7

Azerbaijan5.4

Pakistan11.5

Myanmar6.4

India5.3

STATOISTICSEstimated Number of internally displaced people (IDPs) because of conict and violence

Unlike many countries that are politically unstable, India is a stable democracy. Despite this, it is home to the worlds 15th largest population of internally displaced people ( IDPs) those forced to relocate because of conict and violence. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a humanitarian organization that collates global IDP data, in 2013, there were 33.3 million people worldwide displaced within their own countries. Given the civil war and rapid military gains by ISIS in the countrys north, Syria has the worlds largest

number of IDPs. It is followed by Colombia, which also has seen armed conict since the 1960s

HOMELESSAT HOME

Source: Internal DisplacementMonitoring Centre

Figures are no. of IDPs (lakh)

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The decision tohike excise tax on petrol anddiesel by Rs 2 per litre willcome as a big boost to highwaydevelopment in the country,which is moving at a snailspace. The increase is expectedto generate nearly Rs 10,500crore annually at a time whenhighway development is be-ing pushed mainly throughgovernment-funding mode.

At present, about Rs 12,000crore comes annually forhighway development fromthe total fuel cess collection.

A government release saidthat fresh decision has beentaken in order to fund the am-bitious infrastructure devel-

month, oil firms had decidedto absorb the duty change.The government on Decem-ber 2 raised excise duty onpetrol by Rs 2.25 per litre andon diesel by Rs 1 a litre. Oilcompanies had revised fuelrates just a day before thehike and had decided to ab-sorb the increase.

The need for additionalfund flow for highways wasearlier mooted by the road se-cretary, sources said, and itwas moved in the last coupleof weeks. This additionalfund will mean our borrowingrequirement for highway de-velopment programme will beless, said a ministry official.

For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com

However, retail price ofpetrol and diesel will remainunchanged all over India de-spite additional excise dutyof Rs 2 per litre from mid-night today (Friday), oilmnister Dharmendra Prad-han tweeted. When the gov-ernment hiked excise duty onthe petrol and diesel last

opment programme of thegovernment, particularly thebuilding of 15,000 km of roads,during current and next fi-nancial year. It added alloca-tion of these resources to theroad sector will also spur eco-nomic activity and employ-ment generation arising fromthe road construction sector.

Petrol-diesel excise duty hike toraise ``10,500cr a yr for highways

The need for additionalfund flow for highwaydevelopment was earlier mooted by the road secretary,sources said, and it was moved in the last couple of weeks

Kolkata: New Years Eveturned into horror for a youngcouple when the woman wasmolested and her husband be-aten up by a bunch of drunkengoons at New Town in Rajar-hat late on Wednesday night.The gang tried to drag thewoman away with them butthe couple fought them off.

After surviving the battle,the couple headed straight fora police station where officersbrusquely told them that theywould not accept a complaintunless the woman got herselfmedically checked, says thehusband. It is the polices re-sponsibility to get a rape com-plainant examined.

TOI has pictures that sh-ow horrific bruises on the 24-year-old survivors face. TNN

Goons molest,drag Bengal

woman off bike

Subodh.Varma@timesgroup.com

There is good newsand bad news on oneof the key problemsthat haunts India

survival of the girl child. Sex ratio at birth, that is,

number of girls born for every1,000 boys born, has inched upfrom 906 to 909 between 2007and 2013. This suggests that fe-male feticide, the monstrouspractice of killing off the girlbaby in the mothers wombhas been somewhat checked.Thats the good news.

The bad news is that thechild sex ratio, that is, num-ber of girls in the 0-4 year age group for every 1,000 boys in the same age group,has declined from 914 to 909 in the same period.

Information on sex ra-tios is made available by the Census office based ontheir sample registrationsystem (SRS) annual surveysover the years. The latest re-lease was last week.

Experts and activists saythat the slight increase in sexratio at birth is not very sig-nificant though it is a wel-come trend. They feel thatlaws prohibiting sex selec-tion are not very effective.

Perhaps, in cities, thereis some prevention of sex selection due to laws butthere is spread of this hei-nous practice in rural ar-eas and in regions where ear-lier it was not there, arguesKirti Singh, lawyer and wom-ens rights activist.

Ravinder Kaur, professorat IIT Delhi who has studiedsex ratios and related familyissues also said that laws andcampaigns have not contrib-

uted much in controlling sexselection. Sex determinationservices are still available forthose who seek them. Thechange is due more to com-plex social changes happen-ing including fertility decline,improvements in socio-eco-

nomic circumstances, etc. But the slight uptick in sex

ratio at birth is negated bywhat happens to girls who areborn and survive. Neglect,discrimination and in ex-treme cases even killing of ve-ry young girls is behind dip-ping child sex ratio. There isa tendency to give the girl lessfood, or not treat her sicknesswith the same urgency as aboys. There are many courtcases on deaths of small girls.All this points to deep dis-crimination against girls,Kirti Singh said.

The increases and decreas-es are small at the country lev-el but at the state level sharpertrends are visible. Again,

these are good and bad.The good news is that Del-

hi, Haryana, Punjab and Ra-jasthan, which were theworst four states in terms ofsex ratios both at birth and atthe 0-4 age group, are the onlystates in the country wheresex ratios at both levels areimproving. Clearly, socialoutrage backed by better reg-ulation has had some effect.In all four states, sex ratiosare still below 900, pointing tothe long road ahead.

But in six states Assam,Jharkhand, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Tamil Nadu andWest Bengal sex ratio bothat birth and in the 0-4 agegroup are going down.

This is worrisome be-cause these are states whichhad better sex ratios and nowappear to be heading the waysome of the north Indianstates went earlier.

Apart from the six statesabove, sex ratio at birth has al-so declined in Andhra Pra-desh (pre-division), Bihar,Chhattisgarh, and HimachalPradesh. Child sex ratio hasdeclined in Gujarat, Jammu &Kashmir, Karnataka, Maha-rashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pra-desh, besides the six states.

There is no common ex-planation for the decline insome of the eastern andsouthern states; again a mixof fertility shifts, rise of sonpreference due to spread ofdowry in some of these statesetc. are decisive factors, Ra-vinder Kaur said.

More girls being born,but fewer surviving

Uptick In SexRatio At Birth,Decline In 0-4

Age GroupYears

Sex Ratio

AtBirth

Child(0-4 yrs)

2007-09 906 914

2008-10 905 914

2009-11 906 914

2010-12 908 912

2011-13 909 909

States AtBirthChild

(0-4 yrs)Assam, Jkhand, Kerala, MP, TN, West Bengal

Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Raj

AP, Bihar, Chhgarh, HP,

Guj, J&K, Ktaka, Maharashtra,Odisha, UP

HOW THE STATES FARED

There is a tendencyto give the girl less food,or not treat her sicknesswith the same urgency asa boys. There are manycourt cases on deaths ofsmall girls. All this pointsto deep discriminationagainst girls KIRTI SINGHLAWYER & WOMENS RIGHTS ACTIVIST