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Declining sex ration in Punjab:

As we all know about the story of Abhimanyu of our epic Mahabharata where his death

was destined when he was still in his mother’s womb but the incident happened in the war field

of Kurukshetra where he died while inading one of the chakrayuha! "ikewise nowadays the

deaths of the girl child in our so called modern society are planned when they are still in theirmother’s womb# the only difference being the death is not only planned but also made it

happened inside the womb itself! Day by day this gender biased prejudice and discrimination is

deep$rooted in our modern culture and society which is the major reason for the declining sex

ration all oer the country! %en today girl child are seen as a huge burden not only on her

 parents but also on the paternal and maternal grandparents! &ith the help of today’s adanced

medical technology the conseratie families bribe the medical professionals in order to detect

the gender of the child in the mother’s womb# and if the child appears to be a girl child then it

resulted to feticide and the conse'uence is declining sex ratio!

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Punjab has a long history of killing girl child. In earlier days it was done by

burying the newly born child and nowadays due to technological advancement the

process has become easier for those Hippocratic conservative families in the name

of feticide. Most of the Punjabi families are wanting male child who can take care of

their chattels and can become an heir of their family. This is all because they are of

the notion that only a son has a right to do all the rituals after death of the parentsand carry forward the kinsfolk. Another reason for female feticide is that the burden

of her marriage. The tradition of typical Punjabi families is to provide the grooms

family with lots and lots of e!pensive gifts in the name of dowry which acts as a

huge burden on the family of the bride whereas acts as an incentive to have a male

child in the family. The striking rate of fall in girl child in Punjab and Haryana is

horrifying. As per latest estimates" #ve lakh female fetus are aborted annually. As

per the recent $%I&'( report" India has lost over one crore girls since )**+ while ,*

per cent districts have recorded an increasingly masculine se! ratio since --.

/ecause of this The Punjab government on 0unday has kick1started a

belligerent operation to check female feticide and infanticide under which

e!haustive vigil has been ordered on the functioning of ultrasound centers in the0tate.

0tate Health and (amily 2elfare Minister" 0urjit 3umar 4ayani said that guidelines

had been issued to all the Health o5cers including the civil surgeons to keep an eye

on the $06 centers that illicitly carrying out se! determination tests. He said that

stringent action would be taken against doctors indulging in illicit practices and also

ordered abrupt sealing of such centers.

 4ayani has also asked the o5cers concerned to initiate a arduous campaign to

ensure strict implementation of the P%7T Act and ensure a strict compliance to the

awareness generation activities undertaken in Punjab.

 Taking stock of the ongoing centrally sponsored schemes and programs in the

state" the Minister" according to an o5cial release here" said that 8the Punjab

government would get a district1wise survey done to identify the e!act se! ratio

across the state and would take ade9uate steps to improve the male1female ratio

wherever a decline is recorded.8 He also said that the Punjab government has come

up with action plans for village level" block level as well as district level so that the

number of girl children registered and their educational levels also go up.

:uoting the statistics" the Minister" according to the release" further said that

8apparently the se! ratio at birth has improved in Punjab to ,; females per -"***

males as compared to the neighboring Haryana state where it was recorded as ,+

females per -*** males...

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indulged in such immoral activities which is illegal too should remember that

women are those who bring them into this world and without them this world will

become human less. As a control measure government is taking many steps but till

we become conscious about the impact of the step that we are taking against

female" the issue is not going to solve.