ANURADHA MASCARENHAS PUNE, MARCH 19 THE child sex ratio (below six years) has been on the decline in the country and villages and districts are now hitting a new low. Pune city, and district, has clearly made its choice and opted for the male child. Biith registrations at Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in 2J008 show the sex ratio at birth pegged at 881 girls per 1,000 boys and in Pune rural, it is 875 girls per 1,000 boys. Health officials at PMC admit that as against 26,383 boys who were registered at birth in 2008, the registrations for girls who were born the same year were only 23,124 and hence the at-hirth child sex ratio now hovers around 881 girls per 1,000 boys. "In 2007, it was 871 girls per 1,000 boys," says Dr D D Chandakkar, Deputy Health Officer, TMC. Pune rural is a shade worse. Now for the first time, a survey from January to December last year conducted by Pune district health officials at Zilla Parishad points out that the ratio has been skewed further and is a lowly 875 girls for 1,000 boys. Of the 13 blocks/tehsils in Pune district, the sex ratio of girls (belovj six years) has declined to 859 girls per 1,000 boys in Baramati, 845 per 1,000 in Daund and 831 per 1,000 in Purandhar. These tehsils are barely 110,70 and 40 kms from Pune city. District health officer Dr H H Chavan said they had monitored the birth of newborns in 1,85_5 villages in Pune district and were alarmed that the sex ratios have gone to an all-time low. Even as authorities in Pune urban and rural areas are taking the matter seriously, new schemes can only be implemented after the model code of conduct is lifted. ZUla Parishad chief executive Sanjeev Kumar has several plans like sending gifts for every girl born in primary health centres in rural areas." In fact, each newborn girl at a primary health centre will be given gifts like mattress or mosquito net," says Dr N D Deshmukh, additional district health officer at the Zilla Parishad. In the city, plans are underway to celebrate the birth of a girl child at corporation-run hospitals, says Chandakkar.