India-Forums.TV

[aryan]

CHANG (BHIWANI): Haryana health minister Geeta Bhukkal shouldn't be going all the way to Kerala to figure out the dipping sex ratio problem in her state. The solution is right here at home. A small village in Haryana is slowly but effectively reversing the shameful trend that could serve as a model for the entire state.

What the state sponsored incentive schemes have failed to achieve, the collective effort of the residents of this village have accomplished.

The sex ratio in Chang has been defying the numbers that have put Haryana at a shameful spot. In fact, in the last two years, the girl-boy sex ratio in this village has beaten almost all the major districts of the state.

The sex ratio, according to deputy registrar Virender Sheoran at Chang's primary health centre, was about 750:1000 in 2008. The trend started improving and became 899: 1000 in 2009. The village turned the tables in favour of the girl child in 2010. Against 60 male children born in 2010 till November, the number of girls born was 68. The ratio was 1066:1000, said Sheoran.

Moreover, the PHC has the highest number of institutional deliveries in the district 303 in 2010. The village with a population of around 12,000 has agriculture as primary occupation.

While farming is the main sources of livelihood for people of upper caste communities like Rajputs and Jats, the landless scheduled and backward communities are daily wagers or are earning their livelihood from smalltime ventures in the village.

The village, located 12 km from Bhiwani, has an active Sakshar Mahila Samooh (SMS) a group that work towards the social and economic betterment of women.

The SMS group led by Anju Parmar has been one of the best groups in the district who have been working enthusiastically. We keep a close track on the pregnant women. The anganwari workers as well as the village panchayat cooperate with us. Since we work in tandem, it leaves little space for the unscrupulous elements to lure the villagers into ultrasound centre, she stated.