Dinesh Kamath's news "‘Save the girl child’ campaign proves to be a success in Navi Mumbai" that was published in Newsband

‘Save the girl child’ campaign proves to be a success in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Child sex ratio in Navi Mumbai is much better as compared to Mumbai, says a reliable source.

Navi Mumbai’s child sex ratio says that in 2013-14 there were 923 females per 1000 males in the age group of 0-6 years. Mumbai records 914 females. This is better than the result recorded in 2012-13.

It is clear that people in Navi Mumbai are become well aware about the importance of the girl child and they have been carrying out all types of drives to prevent discrimination against the girl child. The authorities in Navi Mumbai are prepared to go to any extent to prevent the residents of the city from indulging in sex determination tests and in the process save the girl child. In fact, such sex determination tests have been considered as illegal and anybody found violating this law can face severe penalties.

In the past it had become a fashion for many people to go through sex determination tests and blood-based genetic tests to prevent female child from getting born. Undergoing abortion had been in vogue everywhere, until many social organizations took this issue extremely seriously and they pressurized the authorities to take stern actions against such ugly happenings. NGOs and the authorities started campaigns in big way to save the girl child and in the process they succeeded in minimizing this crime considerably.   

The efforts of NGOs and authorities in Navi Mumbai did not go waste considering the fact that Navi Mumbai had recorded a good child sex ratio (923) last year although the target is 940 which is the national average as per the 2011 Census.

The residents of urban areas are more scientific minded. But they misuse their scientific knowledge and are more prone to undergo gender tests and this is not a good trend, according to experts. In comparision, the people of rural areas refrain from undergoing these tests in order not to invite the wrath of God. This is the reason why child sex ratio in rural areas is much better than in urban areas.

The NGOs and municipal authorities find it more difficult to control the residents of the cities as compared to villagers when it comes to saving the girl child. But Navi Mumbai residents woke up on time as far as this issue of saving girl child was concerned and in the process managed to improve considerably the current child sex ratio.