Panaji, Feb 25 (IANS): Due to poor sex ratio in Goa, among every 1,000 men, 32 will be left unmarried over the next 15 to 20 years in the state, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said Monday.

Parrikar was speaking at a function organised by an association of country's college principals near Margao, a town in south Goa 40 km from here.

"Do we know the consequences for the future? That in 15, 16, 20 years, from every 1,000 boys, around 32 will not get a wife?" Parrikar said, questioning how Goa, despite a healthy literacy rate, has been unable to fix the poor sex ratio.

Goa's sex ratio stands at 968/1,000 as per the 2011 census. It is better than the national average of 940/1,000, but successive state governments have stepped up efforts to check the decline. The ratio had dipped to an inglorious low of 961/1,000 in 2001.

Apart from making efforts to rein in illegal sex determination in Goa's clinics, the state government has already started several populist schemes in order to make the girl-child less vulnerable.

Every girl born in Goa gets a fixed deposit of Rs.25,000, which is formally handed over to her at the age of maturity. A newly launched 'Laadli Laxmi' scheme grants Rs.1 lakh to women in Goa at the time of marriage as part of expenses for the ceremony.