Marriage registrations to be complemented by oath to save the girl child: Govt
In a significant initiative, Delhi Government is asking all newlyweds to take an oath that they will not indulge in female foeticide and will take care of the girl child just like they would of the boys.
The lead has been taken by the North district to spread awareness among new couples about the girl child. The response from newlyweds has been quite encouraging as they have volunteered to take the vow about the girl child. The novel initiative is the brainchild of North District Magistrate Mona Srinivas. The move is in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. In his Independence Day address, Modi drew attention to the skewed sex ratio in the country and appealed to the people to bring an end to female foeticide.
The initiative by North district Revenue Department kickstarted on August 9 has so far had four newlyweds taking the pledge. “We have started administering the oath to the newlyweds who visit the additional district magistrates’ offices to register their marriage after tying the knot. The idea is to create awareness against female foeticide and encourage people to not opt for sonography to find out the sex of their children as that is illegal,” said Som Naidu, ADM, Revenue Department. But the official said that taking the pledge is not compulsory to get the marriage registered. “Couples do it voluntarily. We just request them to take the oath. We give them the handout and each of them reads it (the oath) aloud to take the vow,” he said.
The district advisory committee of all districts has come up with this idea to check female foeticide in each district. South-West district had recorded the lowest sex ratio of 836:1,000 in the 2011 census while North district recorded 871. The sex ratio of North-West district has recorded 862; South Delhi 859; West district 876; North-East district 886; East district 883; Central 892.
According to census data, sex ratio has gone up from 821 in 2001 to 868 in 2011. Interestingly, sex ratio in 1901 was 862 and it has crossed this figure for the first time in 2011 to reach 868. The population of Delhi has been estimated at 1.67 crore registering an increase of over 21 per cent during the period of 2001-2011, which is above the national average of about 17 per cent. The total population National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi stands at 16,787,941, out of which 53.53 per cent (8,987,326) are male while 46.47 per cent (7,800,615) are female.