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NEW DELHI: The policy formulated to protect the girl child is starting to show unintended results since its implementation two months back. In an interview given to NDTV, Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development, said that people have resorted to throwing away baby girls as a result of stringent measures against the sex determination test, rather than keeping them against their will.
"We didn't expect results to show for at least a year or two years, if at all, as its one of those mindset changing things,” she said .
"The result is that hundreds of girl children are being thrown into orphanages in these 100 districts. In Amritsar, they have received 89 girls this month. In Tamil Nadu, they said the same thing. In all the districts we have chosen, they have a lot going in 'palnas' (state orphanages), " the minister added further.
"Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" scheme launched by the central government in the 100 districts of various states where women to men ratio is most abysmal, entailed stricter measures against sex-determination through ultrasound technique.
The scheme had been launched in Haryana amid high hopes by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi . Haryana and Gujarat are two of the states with the worst sex-ratio throughout country.
According to a study published in Lancet, India has put to death more than 12 million girl children in the womb in the last three decades. The sex ratio, according to last census in 2011 was 918 to 1000 boys, a steep decline from 962 to 1000 in 1981.
"You have 2000 girls who are killed in the womb every day. Some are born and have pillows on their faces choking them " the Minister said in the same interview .
