NALGONDA: The decline in male-female ratio in rural areas in Telangana has set alarm bells ringing in the social welfare departments. Girls are murdered or sold off by poor parents, due to their inability to pay dowry.
Sources say though government agencies are keeping a watchful eye, parents kill female infants by slipping a paddy seed down their throat or by simply leaving the baby in the wild. Officials of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) have been keeping a strict vigil in villages, where female infanticide is high. They keep track of pregnant women, providing medical help and ensuring delivery takes place in a hospital.
But recently parents have started outwitting officials. “Pregnant women are made to leave the village without informing the anganwadi or Asha workers. They move to places where they can sell or kill the baby, if it is a girl child. On returning, they say the baby was a stillborn and we are helpless,” said an official.
Devarakonda Women and Child welfare officer Sakkubai said they are implementing the child tracking system to prevent the sale or killing of girl child in the area.
Born to die
■ Devarakonda of Nalgonda is infamous for female infanticide and child trafficking
■ The then TDP government took steps to end the killings and it yielded good results but could not stop infanticide 100 per cent
■ The first girl child sale for `2,000 came to light in 1996. After that, several such instances were reported