Govt to ‘cradle’ girl child
Offers To Adopt Abandoned Babies To Curb Female Foeticide
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: “Don’t kill your daughter. The government will raise her.”
Alarmed by a declining sex ratio due to female foeticide, the government
has an offer to make to parents who extinguish a new life-a ‘palna’ or
‘cradle’ scheme in districts under which girl children can be left to the
care of official agencies.
The government seems to feel that such a scheme-bound to attract its
share of critics-is a way to check an inhuman trend. The scheme, to be
implemented by the ministry of women and child development in coordination
with state governments, is likely to be put in place during the 11th
five-year plan as part of measures to fight the menace of female foeticide.
“We want to put a cradle or palna in every district headquarters. What
we are saying to the people is: have your children, don’t kill them. And if
you don’t want a girl child, leave her to us,” minister of state for women
and child development Renuka Chowdhury told a news agency. “We will bring up
the children. But don’t kill them because there really is a crisis
situation,” she added. Asked what if the scheme encouraged more families to
abandon their girl children, Chowdhury said: “It doesn’t matter. It is
better than killing them.”
The minister said that parents, even if they have abandoned their
daughters, are likely to have a change of heart later. “Parents who abandon
children do come back and take them back,” she said.
Chowdhury said that through the cradle scheme, the government would at
least ensure that the gene pool is maintained. “We do not have enough girls.
As it is, states are importing girls from here and there,” she said.
The sex ratio in the country has been recorded at as low as 933 females
per 1,000 males in the 2001 census. Northern states fare the worst, with
national capital Delhi having the lowest sex ratio at 821. In Haryana, the
sex ratio has been recorded at 861, while Punjab is only slightly better
with a figure of 876.
Chowdhury said the practice was spreading to more states. “It’s alarming
that even liberal states like those in the North-East have taken to
disposing of girls,” she said.
Publication:Times of India Mumbai; Date:Feb 19, 2007; Section:Front Page;
Page Number:1