With the new initiative taken by the government, couples who keep their girl child instead of aborting them, will be awarded a cash incentive. In the Latin American countries, the scheme called the conditional cash transfer scheme has been a successful experiment and it will be launched in India this New Year.

Many people travel a long way from their native village to a temple in Punjab in search of a son. These son temples and Gurudwaras in the state are flocked every day by hundreds of such people who want a male son.

To discourage such people, who desire a male child, the government would be launching one of its most ambitious schemes to rectify a skewed sex ratio in the country. However, this scheme is for those people, who despite being poor are prepared to have daughters and take care of them.

Under the conditional cash transfer scheme, Rs 5000 (USD 125) would be given to the girl child once the birth is registered and there is cash award at every stage from immunisation to matriculation. However, the parents will have to raise the girl child according to the prescribed norms, else the money would not be transferred.

The scheme has been implemented in Latin American countries and 5-year planned allocations have been made to implement a pilot project in 10 blocks across the country.

“What we invest today. We will reap the harvest tomorrow,” says Renuka Choudhery, WCD Minister.

The benefits of the scheme do not end here. If the girl remains unmarried and has also completed two years of her vocational training, Rs 1.25 lakh (USD 3,125) would be transferred to her account.

With our country recording a crore female foeticide cases in the last two decades, this incentive is the first ever hope to keep the girl child alive.

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The sociological conditions of women in India – some facts

The sociological conditions of women in India leaves much to be desired. National Family Health Survey of India, highlights the plight of girls, who die at an alarmingly higher rate than boys, apparently because of a stubborn preference among many couples for boys. The risk of dying between ages one and five is 43 percent higher for girls than boys. Many couples prefer boys over girls and are more likely to take their sons than their daughters for medical treatment when they are ill, the survey says. The survey concludes that women’s status in India is still poor.

A United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report titled The Progress of Indian States claims that India had less than 93 women for every 100 men against the world average of 105. That accounts to nearly 1.4 million “missing girls” in the age group of 0-6 years based on the assumption that one would typically expect 96 girls for every 100 boys in this age group. Only where societies specifically and systematically discriminate against women are fewer of them found to survive it added. UNICEF says that in India, girl children tend to be taken to health centers less frequently than boys, receive less food than boys and are given less education than boys. In certain parts of India, such as in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu state and in parts of rural Bihar, female infanticide remains quite common. The problem is getting worse.

The main reason for the widespread female foeticide and the continuing prevalence of female infanticide in parts of India was the dowry system, which although long prohibited by law, continues to play a significant role in Indian society. Dowries and wedding expenses regularly run to more than a million rupees ($35,000) in a country where the average civil servant earns about 100,000 rupees ($3,500) a year. Added to this the low status of women in rural India, where they perform the menial tasks of the family such as carrying water and firewood and seeing to feeding the animals, and it is clear where the roots of the discrimination spring.

The situation is even worse regarding educating these children. India, which is estimated to have some 432 million illiterate people, must give top priority to compulsory elementary education for social and economic growth to occur. 64 percent of Indian men are literate, but fewer than two out of five women can read and write. About 41 percent of Indian girls under the age of 14 do not attend school, said the report.

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