Focus on Beed in Maharashtra under ‘Beti Bachao’ scheme

Mumbai, Jan 22 (IANS) Ten Maharashtra districts with a skewed child sex ratio figure in the "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" scheme unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

The scheme is scheduled for implementation in 100 selected districts across the country with a child sex ratio far below the national figure of 918 girls per 1,000 boys through the ministries of women and child development, human resource development and health.

The districts with the 2011 child sex ratio and the targeted figures for 2015-2016 in Maharashtra include: Beed – 807 in 2011 Census (target 925), Jalna – 870 (938), Jalgaon – 842 (899), Ahmednagar – 852 (929), Aurangabad – 858 (880), Buldhana – 855 (872), Washim – 863 (928), Osmanabad – 867 (928), Kolhapur – 863 (910) and Sangli – 862 (865).

According to officials, the key interventions under the scheme would include registration of pregnancies in the first trimester with anganwadi kendras, increasing institutional deliveries, registration of births and stringent monitoring of Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act to prevent sex determination.

Incidentally, Beed district – with a child sex ratio of 807/1000, against the national average of 917 – had shot into national limelight five years ago following heinous incidents of female foeticide, resulting in a massive crackdown on errant medicos.

Under the "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" scheme, the child sex ratio target for Beed is fixed at 925 – much higher than that for other low child sex ratio districts in the state – to enable it to catch up faster with the child sex ratio of 951.