Doctors champion cause of the girl child

BANGALORE - Championing the cause of the girl child, doctors from across the country Saturday here pledged to curb the malpractices of sex selection and female foeticide to “achieve an equal society”.

Around 70 leading doctors from across India took part at the inaugural ceremony of a two-day national conference in Bangalore.

The conference christened, ‘Doctors for Daughters: Faith in Action against Sex Selection’ has been organised by the Art of Living foundation (AOL), in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Indian Medical Association (IMA).

“Sex composition in our country is heavily skewed in the favour of males. Sex Ratio is an important social indicator to measure the extent of prevailing equity between males and females at a given point of time,” said Ena Singh, assistant representative, UNFPA India.

“Large scale prevalence of sex selection and female foeticide are the main reasons for killing of girl children in our country, even before their birth. This needs to be stopped to achieve an equal society,” stressed Singh.

According to the census of India, 2001, the sex ratio of India stands at 933. This is a marginal improvement from the 1991 Census, which had recorded 927 females for every 1,000 males. At the 2001 Census, the sex ratio among the major states ranged from 861 in Haryana to 1,058 in Kerala.

Experts define sex ratio as the number of females per 1,000 males.

The objective of the conference is to build a network of doctors across the country to act as change agents in the medical community to build pressure on colleagues to curb sex selection.

Raising concern over the rapidly growing threat to the girl child, Pragati Sinha, member, National Mentoring Group (NMG) said: “Contrary to popular belief, this practice is also prevalent among the educated, urban, rich and the aspiring middle class. It is time we give more importance to empowering women and take a legal action against those who are encouraging the practice of pre-natal sex selection.”

“The 2001 census where we had seen the sex ratio at birth in India falling so drastically had sent shock waves through the country. It showed us how deep the intolerance in this country is for half of humanity. It is sad because every religion that has been nurtured on this great land has taught us tolerance, respect and compassion,” added Sinha.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, while inaugurating the conference at The Art of Living International Centre in Bangalore, said: “According to our scriptures killing a girl child is equal to killing a thousand saints.”