Child and Disabled Welfare Minister V. Sunitha Laxma Reddy on Monday said the Government was committed to eradicating sex selective abortions through effective implementation of PCPNDT Act.
Launching the statewide campaign ‘Join hand-in-hand to protect girl child’ organised by ActionAid, a voluntary organisation here, she said programmes akin to the one on eradication of polio would be initiated to save the girl child in the State.
Rally
The launch of the campaign started with a rally. Around 500 persons, mostly women and children, from 11 districts (Warangal, Nalgonda, Medak, Mahabubnagar, Chittoor, Prakasam, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Anantapur, Ranga Reddy besides the city) participated in it. The rally was flagged off by a woman who had escaped from forced abortion, left her in-laws’ house and preferred divorce, in Chittoor district.
Slogans raised
Placards carried by women had slogans such as ‘Sex determination and selection is a crime’, and ‘Say no to discrimination of girl child’.
Ajay Sahney , Principal Secretary , Medical andHealth, promised stringent action against violators of the PCPNDT Act. P. Raghu, Regional Manager, ActionAid, said the campaign would be continued for the next one year, till December 10, 2013, covering 12 districts.
Others who spoke included Rajya Lakshmi , Secretary , Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission, Janardhan Reddy, State Director, Municipal Administration, Rukmini Rao, Gramya Resource Centre and Lakshmi Lingam, Deputy Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
