Declining sex ration in Punjab:

As we all know about the story of Abhimanyu of our epic Mahabharata where his death
was destined when he was still in his mothers womb but the incident happened in the war field
of Kurukshetra where he died while invading one of the chakravyuha. Likewise nowadays the
deaths of the girl child in our so called modern society are planned when they are still in their
mothers womb, the only difference being the death is not only planned but also made it
happened inside the womb itself. Day by day this gender biased prejudice and discrimination is
deep-rooted in our modern culture and society which is the major reason for the declining sex
ration all over the country. Even today girl child are seen as a huge burden not only on her
parents but also on the paternal and maternal grandparents. With the help of todays advanced
medical technology the conservative families bribe the medical professionals in order to detect
the gender of the child in the mothers womb, and if the child appears to be a girl child then it
resulted to feticide and the consequence is declining sex ratio.

Punjab has a long history of killing girl child. In earlier days it was done by
burying the newly born child and nowadays due to technological advancement the
process has become easier for those Hippocratic conservative families in the name
of feticide. Most of the Punjabi families are wanting male child who can take care of
their chattels and can become an heir of their family. This is all because they are of
the notion that only a son has a right to do all the rituals after death of the parents
and carry forward the kinsfolk. Another reason for female feticide is that the burden
of her marriage. The tradition of typical Punjabi families is to provide the grooms
family with lots and lots of expensive gifts in the name of dowry which acts as a
huge burden on the family of the bride whereas acts as an incentive to have a male
child in the family. The striking rate of fall in girl child in Punjab and Haryana is
horrifying. As per latest estimates, five lakh female fetus are aborted annually. As
per the recent UNICEF report, India has lost over one crore girls since 2007 while 80
per cent districts have recorded an increasingly masculine sex ratio since 1991.
Because of this The Punjab government on Sunday has kick-started a
belligerent operation to check female feticide and infanticide under which
exhaustive vigil has been ordered on the functioning of ultrasound centers in the
State.
State Health and Family Welfare Minister, Surjit Kumar Jayani said that guidelines
had been issued to all the Health officers including the civil surgeons to keep an eye
on the USG centers that illicitly carrying out sex determination tests. He said that
stringent action would be taken against doctors indulging in illicit practices and also
ordered abrupt sealing of such centers.
Jayani has also asked the officers concerned to initiate a arduous campaign to
ensure strict implementation of the PNDT Act and ensure a strict compliance to the
awareness generation activities undertaken in Punjab.
Taking stock of the ongoing centrally sponsored schemes and programs in the
state, the Minister, according to an official release here, said that "the Punjab
government would get a district-wise survey done to identify the exact sex ratio
across the state and would take adequate steps to improve the male-female ratio
wherever a decline is recorded." He also said that the Punjab government has come
up with action plans for village level, block level as well as district level so that the
number of girl children registered and their educational levels also go up.
Quoting the statistics, the Minister, according to the release, further said that
"apparently the sex ratio at birth has improved in Punjab to 893 females per 1,000
males as compared to the neighboring Haryana state where it was recorded as 879
females per 1000 males....
The Punjab health minister, meanwhile, urged religious leaders to come forward and
help in changing the mindset of the society towards the girl child.
Consequences:
If the situation persists for a very long period then whom are the boys going
to marry in the future if no women persists at all in the world. People who are

indulged in such immoral activities which is illegal too should remember that
women are those who bring them into this world and without them this world will
become human less. As a control measure government is taking many steps but till
we become conscious about the impact of the step that we are taking against
female, the issue is not going to solve.