Declining child sex ratio sets off alarm bells

April 19, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:44 am IST - KARIMNAGAR:

The Karimnagar district, which won accolades for conducting record number of non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) for men as part of the sterilisation programme, has also attained dubious distinction for the declining child sex ratio in the recent past.

Against the national average of 940 girls for 1,000 boys, the district is having only 937 girls.

There are some mandals especially in the rural areas where the number of girls decreased to below 900 for every 1,000 boys.

Incidentally, the child sex ratio is coming down mostly in the rural areas when compared with the urban areas. Ironically, the Ramagundam coal belt mandal had also reported low child sex ratio.

Reviewing the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal diagnostic techniques (PC-PNDT) Act here on Thursday, Collector Neetu Kumari Prasad expressed concern over declining number of girls in the district.

Stressing on the need to launch a campaign for educating people about the importance of girl child, she said that girls and boys were equal in the society and there was need for the protection of girl child.

Stating that the female-foeticide was a crime, she warned that they would take stern action against the diagnostic centres encouraging sex determination tests.

The district Collector informed the medical and revenue officials to conduct joint surprise inspections of scanning centres.

She said that they would shut down the scanning centres if they are found conducting sex determination tests.

Special campaign

District Legal Services authority secretary Bala Bhaskar said that the authorities should focus and identify the reasons for the declining sex ratio in the rural mandals of the district.

He also suggested that the district administration should launch a special campaign to discourage sex determination tests and educate people about the importance of girl child.

When contacted, District Medical and Health Officer Mohd. Aleem said that “we don’t know the reasons for the declining girl sex ratio.”

The field staff should conduct an inquiry and identify the scientific reasons, he maintained.

Karimnagar district Collector warns of action against the diagnostic centres encouraging sex determination tests

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