SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh government has decided to honour 50 Panchayats in the state for achieving better female sex ratio.
The state government will honour the 50 gram panchayats who succeeded in improving child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years as per the census of year 2011, Health minister Kaul Singh today said.
Presiding over a meeting of Supervisory Board constituted under PC and PNDT Act, 1994 here, he said that district level functions would be organised to honour these panchayats and to start with, the first function would be organised in Una district.
He said that state government was committed to ensure strict implementation of provisions of PC and PNDT Act and maintaining the balance in the sex ratio.
For creating mass awareness, camps would be organized at district level in which public representatives, ASHA and Anganwari workers along with the stakeholders would be educated about the importance of maintaining balance in sex ratio, who would further educate the people in their respective panchayats and areas.
The Health minister said that any person could inform or report the cases of illegal abortion or sex determination on toll free number-102 and the name of the informer would be kept secret and a provision of rewarding him with Rs 10,000 as incentive had also been made.
The minister said that for bringing further improvement in sex ratio in the state, the research work would be assigned to Central University, Dharamshala and first samples would be taken from Una district.
He said that Lahaul and Spiti district had excelled in maintaining the best sex ratio in the state with 1033 girls against 1000 boys.
The Supervisory Board has also suggested for enhancing the incentives to the families adopting family planning measures after the birth of single girl child from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 and to those after the birth of two girl child from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000.