To improve the skewed sex ratio in the State, Haryana Government is all set to take more stringent measures to check the menace of sex determination tests and take up the issue with officers concerned of neighbouring States of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The sex determination and female foeticide have been partly blamed for the low sex ratio in Haryana, although sex selection is outlawed by the PCPNDT Act.
Rakesh Gupta, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister on Monday reviewed the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)Act under ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign. He held a meeting through video conference with all Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police at Kaithal.
Gupta said the issue of sex determination would be discussed with the concerned officers of neighbouring States of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
He said that in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court, the work is under progress of collecting village wise and municipal area wise statistics of sex ratio in Jind and Panipat under a pilot project and making it online for public. He directed to complete the work of uploading last month’s data by 15th of every month.
He said that 950 is considered to be the ideal sex ratio, therefore, officers of each district should make efforts to achieve this target. The State Government has been running a special campaign since May 2015 for strict implementation of PCPNDT and MTP Acts, said he.
Gupta added that during the Haryana Swarna Jayanti Utsav function in Gurugram on November 1, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appreciated the people of Haryana for better work done under ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign.
Haryana, which had the worst sex ratio among states in the 2011 census, was chosen by Prime Minister to launch the nationwide ambitious ‘BBBP’ in 2015. Haryana had the lowest child sex ratio of 834 compared to the national average of 919 (according to census of India 2011).
A year later, the state had recorded sex ratio at 903 in December— the first time in a decade that it had crossed 900 in Haryana.
Since 2015, the State Government has launched various initiatives including organizing ceremonies to celebrate birth of girl child at health institutions and villages, unfurling of National Flag by educated girls on Republic day and Independence day celebrations, honouring parents of girl child at village level celebrations, observing ‘Female Foeticide Conservation Day’, signature campaign and oath ceremonies against female foeticide in education institutions and government offices, cash award for villages successful in improving skewed sex ratio, organizing baby shows, prabhat pheries, celebrating lohri of girl child, appointing girl ambassadors, to name a few.
During the meeting, it was informed that recently the Delhi Government had assured the Haryana Chief Minister of its full support in further improving sex ratio and eliminating evil practice of female foeticide.