Involving the community at keeping a vigil on “high risk families” with an open preference for the boy child and giving the girl child a fighting chance at being born, non-government organisation Centre for Social Research with support from the German Embassy has in the South-West District of Delhi (which has among the lowest sex ratio in the Capital) launched a project aimed at protecting the unborn girl child.
Manasi Mishra of CSR said: “The project is aimed at curbing the incidents of pre-natal sex selection in South-West District of Delhi which according to the recent census data hasn’t shown very encouraging results. According to the census data, the sex ratio in South West-Delhi, which stood at 846 among children in the 0-6 age bracket in the year 2001, further witnessed a 10 point decline to 836 in 2011.’’
She added: “Our project ‘Meri Shakti Meri Beti’ is being introduced in Vasant Kunj, Mahipalpur, Dabri, Dwarka, Vasant Vihar and R.K. Puram of South-West Delhi. The project has two components – one for the rural (community watch group) and another for the urban population (committees against female foeticide) in the area. Under the rural population we will have the community to keep a tab on high risk families, encourage them to counsel them and keep a strict vigil on pregnant women in the area. In the urban population we will work through the resident welfare organisation and women’s groups.’’
As part of the project, members of the community watch group will keep a vigil over their immediate society to curb declining sex ratio, create awareness about the PCPNDT Act and tell families about the negative consequences of female foeticide.
CSR director Dr. Ranjana Kumari said: “The way the project works is simple -- the entire community contributes towards ensuring that the unborn girl child is not aborted after sex selection.’’
