Chandigarh, August 5 – Under the directions of Health and Family Welfare Minister Arti Singh Rao, the weekly meeting of the State Task Force (STF) for Improving Sex Ratio in Haryana was held under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal here today. The meeting focused on intensifying efforts to curb illegal abortions and further improve the state’s sex ratio under the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign.
The meeting highlighted that the government’s sustained efforts have yielded encouraging results — from January 1 to July 31 this year, the state’s sex ratio has improved to 907, up from 899 during the corresponding period last year.
The Additional Chief Secretary emphasized the need for stringent enforcement against illegal abortions, instructing officials to take punitive measures, including revoking the licences of doctors found complicit. He said the state is implementing reverse tracking of all Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) and abortion cases beyond 12 weeks, particularly where women already have one or more daughters. In July alone, 32 FIRs were registered in suspected reverse tracking cases, leading to 32 arrests. Additionally, FIRs are under process in four more cases, and 38 notices have been issued to private hospitals and clinics for suspected violations.
In a unique and inclusive initiative, the Additional Chief Secretary directed that the transgender community be actively involved in celebrating the birth of girls across the state. As part of this effort, members of the transgender community will visit the homes where a girl child is born—just as they traditionally do when a boy takes birth— and present a certificate of Rs 21,000 invested with the LIC under the ‘Aapki Beti Hamari Beti’ scheme to the family of the girl child. For this, the Haryana Government will also incentivize the transgender community and a minimum amount of Rs 1,100 is proposed to be given to such transgenders. The entire campaign shall be run under the supervision of the concerned Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the district.
The Additional Chief Secretary also ordered a crackdown against IVF centres involved in sex-determination tests and illegal abortion practices. It was decided that all implantations through the IVF must be registered under Antenatal Care (ANC) for improved surveillance.
He also asked the police department to actively coordinate with the Health Department teams for tracking illegal abortion centres and arresting the culprits, while also seeking a report on the progress achieved in the FIRs filed till now by next week.
The Woman and Child Development Department informed that an awareness advertisement on the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign is being produced and will soon be aired in cinema halls across the state.
Secretary, Health Department and Mission Director, National Health Mission, Sh. Rippudaman Singh Dhillon, and senior officers of various departments were present in the meeting.
