Project Brief :
Over the years, there has been a serious problem with the decline in sex ratio, especially for children ages 0-6 years. The number of boys strongly outnumbers the number of girls being born each year. This is due to the patriarchal structure of society which believes that a family’s future operates through the male members of a given family. Female children are seen as less worthy because they are expected to leave home once they are married, unlike their male counterparts. Moreover, misuse of ultrasounds has led to the practice of determining the sex of a fetus before its birth, ultimately leading to sex-selective abortions. The misuse of ultrasounds for this purpose is prohibited in the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT & Prohibition on Sex Selection) Act of 1994.
To combat the problem of declining sex ration and increased gender gap, IDF, with the support of Plan India, has instituted the “Let Girls Be Born” project in Palamu District. This project involves multiple stakeholders and focuses on public advocacy to gain support and action to ensure the enforcement of the PCPNDT Act.
IDF’s efforts are undertaken to increase the child sex ratio while addressing female feticide and universal birth registration. In order to demonstrate the effects of this project for further learning and emulation, this project operates through grassroots interventions in 20 panchayats of the Patan and Medininagar blocks of Palamu District in the state of Jarkhand.