Campaign against female infanticide in Bengal

To tackle gender imbalance in the state, the West Bengal government has launched a campaign against female infanticide, which includes organising awareness programmes and monitoring ultrasonography clinics, an official said Friday.

The 'Beti Bachaon' campaign has been initiated by the state government and Village Welfare Society (VWS) to generate awareness as well as to counter the declining sex ratio, B.R. Satpathi, director of state health services, told IANS. The state government is assisting financially as well as with the technical part. 

Trained members from NGOs have been given the task to monitor ultrasonography clinics to check illegal sex determination tests. So far, 175 ward level meetings and nine awareness sessions have been organised on topics ranging from female infanticide, dowry, laws for domestic violence and social security. "Municipality ward level meeting are being conducted to communicate the issues like consequence of declining sex ratio and its negative impact on the society as a whole," said VWS's Kuldip Maity.