There is good news for the country. For the first time in the total population of India, the number of females has increased to 1020 per 1000 males. This is what the figures of the National Family Health Survey-5 released on Wednesday show. Earlier in the NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16, this figure was 991 women per 1000 men. Not only this but the sex ratio at birth i.e. gender ratio has also improved. In 2015-16, it was 919 girls per 1000 children. In the latest survey, this figure has reached 929 girls per 1000 children. The special thing is that the sex ratio in the total population is better in villages than in cities. There are 1037 females for every 1000 males in the villages, whereas there are only 985 females in the cities.
For the first time, the fertility rate in the country has come down to 2. In 2015-16 it was 2.2. The special thing is that the fertility rate of 2.1 is considered as the replacement mark. That is, if a couple is giving birth to two children, then those two children will replace them. Having less than 2 children means that the population is expected to shrink. Population growth remains constant at a fertility rate of 2.1.
The proportion of women in the population may have increased, but so far their condition has not improved much. Even today, 41% of the women in the country are those who have received more than 10 years of schooling, that is, they could study beyond the 10th standard. 59% of women could not study beyond the 10th standard. In rural areas, only 33.7% of women could study beyond the 10th standard. Even in the 5G era, only 33.3% of women in the country have access to the internet.
78.6% of women operate their bank accounts. In 2015-16, this figure was only 53%. At the same time, 43.3% of women have some property in their name, whereas in 2015-16 this figure was only 38.4%. Women adopting safe sanitation measures during menstruation increased from 57.6% to 77.3%. However, anaemia in children and women has emerged as a major concern. 67.1% of children and 57% of women aged 15 to 49 suffer from anaemia.
Households with their own modern toilets were 48.5% in 2015-16. This number has gone up to 70.2% in 2019-21. But 30% are still deprived. Electricity has reached 96.8% of the households in the country.