Impact Assessment of Apki Beti Hamari Beti Programme on Sex Ratio at Birth in the Haryana State of India: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis

Impact Assessment of Apki Beti Hamari Beti Programme on Sex Ratio at Birth in the Haryana State of India: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Impact Assessment of Apki Beti Hamari Beti Programme on Sex Ratio at Birth in the Haryana State of India: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis Ravita Ravita, Suman Suman, Rituparna Kundu, Shruti Sharma This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7158310/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Haryana has long struggled with significant gender disparity, particularly evident in its Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB). As of 2020, the SRB stood at 922 females per 1000 males, underscoring entrenched socio-cultural preferences for sons. While multiple schemes were introduced to address this, weak enforcement has often diluted their impact. This study assesses the medium-term impact of the Apki Beti Hamari Beti (ABHB) scheme—launched in 2015—as a conditional cash transfer intervention to improve the child sex ratio and support girls’ education and health. Employing an Interrupted Time Series (ITS) analysis using ARIMA (2,1,1), we modelled SRB trends between 1998 and 2023 ( 1 ) . The results suggest a statistically significant upward trend in SRB post-implementation. However, attributing these gains solely to ABHB may oversimplify the complexity of change, warranting further investigation into socio-political and structural contributors to gender equity ( 2 ) . Sex ratio at birth Interrupted time series ARIMA Gender equity Conditional cash transfer Haryana Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7158310","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":490994607,"identity":"af57928e-4d9d-4b92-9309-c064b4d2cbde","order_by":0,"name":"Ravita Ravita","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education \u0026 Research (PGIMER)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ravita","middleName":"","lastName":"Ravita","suffix":""},{"id":490994608,"identity":"dea35013-fd3d-4f81-aeb6-3be26c40cad5","order_by":1,"name":"Suman Suman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"SGT University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Suman","middleName":"","lastName":"Suman","suffix":""},{"id":490994609,"identity":"1dfc9182-49f0-4039-9756-537b894cbf96","order_by":2,"name":"Rituparna Kundu","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABCElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZhiDB4wl5PhBnIQCfFpgeiBaLIwlG0BaDIixBqKlInHDARAPjxbzdv5j0gU19/L4e86YPXjbJsG4+fzqxA8PDBjk+cUOYNUic5iZTXrGseJiibM95oZz2ySYzW683SwBdJjhzNkJWLVIMAO18LAlJDac5zGT5m2TYDO7cXYDSEuCwW18Wv4lJM6HauExnnF28w+CWnjbEhI3nO0Ba5Ew4O/dRsgWY+uZfQmJG88cK5Occ07CQOIG7zaLBAMJ3H7hP/jwdsG3hMR5Z5K3Sbwpq6vv7z+7+eaPCht5fmnsWkCAGZUrAVYpgVM5Fi38B/CqHgWjYBSMgpEHALYPVfN1KJLHAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education \u0026 Research (PGIMER)","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rituparna","middleName":"","lastName":"Kundu","suffix":""},{"id":490994610,"identity":"d627c3ea-a040-4840-81c4-e6762912369a","order_by":3,"name":"Shruti Sharma","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education \u0026 Research (PGIMER)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shruti","middleName":"","lastName":"Sharma","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-18 13:53:12","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7158310/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7158310/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95193803,"identity":"47bc5a53-2d6e-4adf-bcb4-308b539438c6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-05 10:54:37","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":518207,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ImpactAssessmentABHBProgrammemanuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7158310/v1_covered_92f002c8-a58f-459e-954e-0f751b66e705.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eImpact Assessment of \u003cem\u003eApki Beti Hamari Beti\u003c/em\u003e Programme on Sex Ratio at Birth in the Haryana State of India: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Sex ratio at birth, Interrupted time series, ARIMA, Gender equity, Conditional cash transfer, Haryana","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7158310/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7158310/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHaryana has long struggled with significant gender disparity, particularly evident in its Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB). As of 2020, the SRB stood at 922 females per 1000 males, underscoring entrenched socio-cultural preferences for sons. While multiple schemes were introduced to address this, weak enforcement has often diluted their impact. This study assesses the medium-term impact of the \u003cem\u003eApki Beti Hamari Beti (ABHB)\u003c/em\u003e scheme\u0026mdash;launched in 2015\u0026mdash;as a conditional cash transfer intervention to improve the child sex ratio and support girls\u0026rsquo; education and health. Employing an Interrupted Time Series (ITS) analysis using ARIMA (2,1,1), we modelled SRB trends between 1998 and 2023\u003csup\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/sup\u003e. The results suggest a statistically significant upward trend in SRB post-implementation. 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