After struggling with rapidly declining sex ratio in state for nearly half a century, Rajasthan made tremendous improvement in evading gender inequality, in last few years. The state that was infamous for female infanticide, Sati pratha and women abuse in past, today, Rajasthan boasts a better child sex ratio of 938 girls per 1000 boys. Thanks to Raje government’s visionary schemes like Ashray, Mukhbir and Shubhlakshmi, all local households came to life with cheerful giggles and smiles of pretty little girls.
With this, other states have decided to follow in Rajasthan government’s footsteps. Government officials from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Madhya Pradesh, who’ve been facing similar challenges in this regard, had put their heads together in the Pink City Jaipur so that they could share their experiences. The centre hopes this would boost their initiative of saving girl child.
In this 2-day long meeting, Rajasthan along with other states will prepare a joint agenda to resolve the issue of rapidly declining girl sex ratio. To strengthen this cause, both the Centre and the state governments will organise a workshop on PCPNDT (pre-conception pre-natal diagnostic technique act) to generate awareness regarding pre-natal diagnosis.
The key topics of discussion at the meeting included strengthening of PCPNDT act, monitory and inspection of sonography centres and conducting decoy operations to spot the offenders. This 2-day meeting came to an end, this Friday.
Over the years, Rajasthan has employed several steps like including sonography machines in the hospital, offering monetary helps to expecting mothers and newborns, establishing milk banks, inception of IMPACT software for tracking hospital data and other such provisions to battle the sex issue. Till date 10,625 inspections have been conducted in Rajasthan, since the implementation of PCPNDT act here. Out of the 1,540 sonography machines put in government hospitals, about 475 machines have been seized and government has cancelled the registration of 419 centres for their involvement in pre-natal sex determination activities.
Regardless of these initiatives, the patriarchal ideologies dominate the society, even today. Therefore, this time, efforts will be made to generate awareness regarding the importance of women in society. Hopefully, this will cause the natives to reconsider their choices.
