| Abstract: :: Sex-selective abortion in India is the product of a deeply entrenched cultural mindset that favours sons. The widespread availability of high-tech portable ultrasound machines have outreach to the remote villages too, is an easy way to kill the female foetus. Unfortunately because there are so many contributors to the problem, the varieties of approaches are required to combat female foeticide. Ganganagar is the most developed district of Rajasthan in India but in this district the female to male gender ratio, according to the 2001 census of India is 872:1000 which indicates the lowest number of girls in the region. In Thar Desert of Rajasthan, a developmental organisation 'URMUL' is doing pioneering work to combat female foeticide in the rural and urban areas of Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Jaisalmer districts of western Rajasthan. Realising the challenging issue of female foeticide, URMUL took the social responsibility to work against girl child discrimination through the awareness generation and capability building projects to stop female foeticide. The paper presents and analyse a case study of Ganganagar district of Rajasthan state and the interventions of the developmental organisation 'URMUL' which made a visible positive change in people's attitudes towards the girl child. They are strengthening community based responses to combat female sex selection and establishing the dignity of the girl child in Rajasthan. Media, newspapers, school-colleges, village panchayats also helped them in spreading the awareness messages. People are now celebrating Kanya-Lodhi and the couples who have survived girl child are publically honoured and presented the certificate of honour for their decision. URMUL hopes that the 2011 figures will show a decrease in the number of “missing” female children. | |
| | |