Haryana’s Karnal district administration to focus on villages with skewed sex ratio

The directions were issued in the meeting chaired by Karnal deputy commissioner Anish Yadav who directed the concerned officials to prepare a list of the villages with the worst sex ratio and the task force will visit these villages to find out the reasons

Karnal district administration has issued directions to the task force to focus on the villages with skewed sex ratio.

The chief medical officer have been asked to focus on the village under the primary health centres (PHC) at Kachhwa, Khukhni and Jalmana villages, which had recorded the lowest sex ratio. (Representational image)

The directions were issued in the meeting chaired by Karnal deputy commissioner Anish Yadav who directed the concerned officials to prepare a list of the villages with the worst sex ratio and the task force will visit these villages to find out the reasons.

This comes after the data revealed that the overall sex ratio at birth (SRB) in the Karnal district has come down to 903 in 2022, a drop of nine points from 912 in 2021. Till November 2022, the district has recorded the birth of 896 girls against 1,000 boys.

The chief medical officer have been asked to focus on the village under the primary health centres (PHC) at Kachhwa, Khukhni and Jalmana villages, which had recorded the lowest sex ratio.

Even the field staff has been instructed to keep a record of all pregnant women in these villages and track their records regularly. The deputy commissioner said that strict action will be taken against these officials for any negligence on their part.

Earlier in a meeting held in December, the DC had expressed dissatisfaction with the working of officials deputed to check female foeticide.

As per the officials, who attended the meeting, instructions were issued to the ground-level officials to keep a close watch on pregnant women who already have girl child to check the female foeticide and conduct surprise inspections of private hospitals, especially those where more cases of abortion are coming to the fore and the woman concerned should also be questioned to find out the reason for the miscarriage.

He also instructed the district program officer of the women and child development department to alert all the anganwadi workers and supervisors to get pregnant women registered in their respective areas and maintain constant contact with them.

During the meeting, Karnal civil surgeon Dr Yogesh Sharma said that instructions have been issued to the field staff for compliance and efforts are being made to put a complete check on female foeticide. Even the field staff, including, multi-purpose health workers (MPHWs), auxiliary nursing midwifery (ANMs) and ASHA workers, have been asked to monitor the records of the villages with the lowest sex ratio and to ensure 100% registration of the pregnant women.