Financial incentive to improve Punjab sex ratio

THE GOVERNMENT will give money to families that allow the birth of a girl child in Fategarh Sahib, Punjab, the district with lowest sex ratio in the country This means all pregnancies will have to be registered and the number of girls born be monitored. The government selected Fatehgarh Sahib last month after the Union Finance Ministry insisted that the scheme be utilised to test whether state intervention helps in improving the sex ratio. A study sponsored by the Bill Gates Foundation showed that the ratio is down to 628 girls to 1,000 boys in Khamano in Fatehgarh Sahib. Punjab's sex ratio is 874 females. Nanowal in Fatehgarh Sahib recorded the country's lowest sex ratio of 754 in the age group of 0-6 years in the 2001 census. If the scheme works in this district, it could be extended to other blocks with low sex ratio, a Women and Child Development ministry official said. Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, considered rich states, have the lowest sex ratios in the country The Women and Child Development Ministry will launch the conditional cash transfer scheme in five states - Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Punjab - from January 2007. According to the ministry, the objective of the scheme is to provide a set of staggered financial incentives to families so that they look after girls and educate them. The scheme entails giving money to parents for registration of birth, the entire process of immunisation, enrolment in school and completing primary education. The girl will get a choice to pursue higher studies or join a government-run vocational training course. The last condition is that she should remain unmarried till the age of 18. At birth, the family will get Rs 5,000 followed by Rs 200 for each immunisation till 24 months. For primary school, the girl child will get Rs 1,000 for admission followed by Rs 500 every year, provided her attendance is 85 per cent. For secondary level, she will get Rs 1,500 on admission and Rs 750 every yeal: thereafter During this entire period, the government will pay Rs 500 every year as premium for her insurance. At end of 12 years, she will get Rs 7,000. If she marries after 18, she will get a lump sum. WORRYING STATS Population (0-6) 78,820,411 Sex ratio (O-6) 927 Literacy rate 53.7 % of females infant 61 per mortality rate 1,000 Child mortality 21.1 per rate (O-4 years) 1,000

 
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very good idea by the government!

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British-Indians aborting 'unwanted girls'
3 Dec 2007, 1416 hrs IST,PTI
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/general-discussion/18374-financial-incentive-improve-punjab-sex-ratio.html

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LONDON: If you think that selective sex abortion is only widespread in India, you are wrong. It is a practice which is prevalent in Britain too, but among the women in the Indian community.

Researchers at Oxford University have carried out a probe and found that a number of Indian-born women living in Britain are aborting unwanted daughters in order to have more boys -- only because of cultural pressure.

According to their findings, nearly 1,500 girls have gone missing from the birth statistics in England and Wales since 1990 -- that is, one in ten girls missing from the list for Indian-born women having their third or fourth child.

"There's a shortfall of girls born to Indian women compared with what would be expected. What I have found is that the proportion of boys over girls has increased over time... it's increased in a way that's not normal. The most probable explanation seems to be sex selective abortion by a minority of mothers born in India," lead researcher Sylvie Dubuc, a population expert, was quoted by The Times as saying.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=18374

In fact, the researchers found that many Indian women in Britain are undergoing the sex selective abortion in their home country -- a practice outlawed in India since the 1980s.

"We are aware that it does go on in India. We are surprised and shocked that it's possibly happening in Indian women who are living in this country. We think this is very unfortunate in this day and age -- it's shocking. It's very hard to say why this could happen. It could be that the parents themselves feel the pressure to have sons, because of culture or background, rather than from family," the President of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, Ramesh Mehta, was quoted as saying.

It is now clear that many people want children for selfish reason.Europe is another example of this.Many european countries are facing severe crisis low birth rate.they are trying many things to promote it but no visible results ARE COMING .Many social scientists beleive that chilfdren are no longer economically beneficial that's why people are opting for less or no children.Similarly girls in indian society are not economically beneficial for parents that's why they are opting for boys.

I hear that India is doing a better job at enforcing the ban of dowry...which may also help.

But those fundamentalist cultural attitudes are engrained and it might take chisal to remove them.


I know this idea seems far fetched and sinister but i will throw it out there to stick true to my name...

Maybe sexual ratio disparity amongst the sexes is a socio cultural agent that was adopted unconsciously by Inidian society to control population within india?

I mean it would be effective considering woman possess the fixed gametes.


Im not trying to justify infanticide or anything similiar to sex selected abortion...I am against it
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=18374
I would see this argument as belonging purely to a utilitarian, thus should be discussed

it's not just india and the UK...

i read an article about a clinic that aims it's advertisements for sex detection ultrasounds at punjabi immigrants in Canada:

Ultrasound ads promote female abortion, immigrant society charges

Then hear another problem.The main culprits of female foeticide's are which are not so poor and educated.The next problem is now trading of girls is started rapidly in haryana punjab.agents purchase girls from very poor parts of india and then sell them here.These people treat these girls like animals.The new report is that india is facing shortage of
28 million brides and worst hit will be poor men.so with this problem crimes are also going to be increased.

As far as dowry law is concerned at present it is severly misused with reports of upto
80% cases registered under it are fake.Thanks to this law men's right movement like Save indian family is also started. they declared november 19 as men's day

There are quite few clinics in America that Assure Male child from artificial fertilization and there visitors aree not only Immigrants but even Tourist from far off places like CHINA

I agree somewhat It could be called natures way to control it or could be collective Intelligence that operates at mass level .I know these concepts look wierd but sucg concepts were used very widely by various people like Sigmund freud

You are quite right!

this is the baseline reason for the plight of europe and India

Self interest has become first pirority for everybody and children are considered bad investment now a days in bussiness terms

But religious beliefs of some groups which consider child birth to be devine thing will ultimately rise in numbers and may be even power!!

So it means that modern values are self destructing for a society.humans don't need atom bomb to extinct themselves.Modern values are enough to destroy a country.

So does it means that final demographic victory belongs to traditional religions like islam and others.