Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) To stop gender selective abortion, the health and home ministries will be urged to take stock of all big and small medical clinics across India, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said Friday while inaugurating national Girl Child Day celebrations.
“Ultrasound meant for sex selection and abortion is a major challenge that we are facing today and it has to be the unified effort of a number of organisations to tackle it. Therefore, I am going to write to the home ministry and the health ministry to take stock of all the clinics in the country and monitor their functions,” Tirath told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

“The purpose of an ultrasound should be to determine the health of the baby and not determine its sex and carry out an illegal abortion,” she added.

National Girl Child Day will be observed Jan 24.

Tirath’s ministry also gave away awards to the winners of a painting competition in schools across Delhi it orgnanised late last year on the theme of women’s empowerment and female foeticide.

“Awareness is the most important tool in battling the evils of the society, and this includes female foeticide. Therefore, we will work out new awareness campaigns on these issues,” Tirath said.

Many families across the country still display son preference, as a result of which the girl child gets a raw deal.