The Government recognizes that the problem of
declining child sex ratio in India is not an isolated phenomenon but must be
seen in the context of the low status of women and the girl child as a whole,
within the home and outside. While its immediate reasons can be traced to
increasing son-preference as well as advances in technology that has encouraged
sex selective abortions, concern of safety and security of the girl child along
with the practice of dowry are no less responsible for it.
Accordingly, the Government has
undertaken a number of measures to improve survival and status of girl children
in the country. While programmes for improvement of
nutrition benefit all children including girl children, like the Integrated
Child Development Scheme, National Rural Health Mission, Mid-day meal scheme
etc., specific interventions for girl children include implementing the
Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, pilot
cash transfer scheme of ‘Dhanlakshmi’, setting up a Sectoral Innovation
Council for improving child sex ratio and acting upon its recommendations, and
the pilot scheme ‘Sabla’ for a comprehensive
Intervention for adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18, with a focus on
out of school girls in select 200 districts of the country.
Of these, ‘Dhanlakshmi’ provides conditional cash incentive, and the
scheme does not discriminate on the basis of caste and economic status of
parents. It is a pilot scheme being implemented in 11 blocks in seven States of
the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment