A cash prize of up to Rs 1 lakh will be given by the Haryana Government to those who provide correct information about stopping female feticide and those who get it done. The name of the person giving such information will be kept secret by the department. Thus, appropriate and effective steps are being taken by the government and administration to prevent female foeticide.
Under the PC & PNDT Act 1994, a provision for strict punishment has been made against the registered center operator and doctor. For committing crimes related to pre-conception sex selection and pre-natal sex determination for the first time, the punishment is 3 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000. After this, if the crime is repeated, a provision of 5 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 has been made.
Under this Act, for the husband, family member or person who instigates gender selection, the punishment for the first offense is imprisonment of up to 3 years with a fine of up to Rs 50,000 and for subsequent offenses, imprisonment of up to 5 years with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh. And there is provision of imprisonment upto 5 years under this act.
In the report released in January, there has been a decline in the sex ratio of 14 cities of Haryana. At the same time, the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has also declined by one point compared to last year. In 2023, the birth of 916 girls per thousand boys was recorded, while in 2022 it was 917. However in 2021 this figure was 914. But if we look at the old figures, it had reached 923 in 2019. Even compared to the national level, the sex ratio of Haryana is far behind.
The cities which have recorded a decline in sex ratio in 2023 include Fatehabad, Nuh, Sirsa, Yamunanagar, Jind, Kaithal, Panipat, Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat, Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Karnal and Bhiwani. Whereas, increase has been recorded in Gurugram, Palwal, Kurukshetra, Faridabad, Panchkula, Hisar, Rewari and Jhajjar. Last year, a total of 5,50,465 children were born in the state. These included 2,87,336 boys and 2,63,129 girls.
According to SRB data, there are five cities with the biggest decline in the state, whose sex ratio has been recorded below 900.
The worst situation is in Rohtak. The sex ratio of Rohtak was 936 in 2022, which decreased to 883 in 2023. There is a decline of 53 points whereas, the second city is Charkhi Dadri. The sex ratio was 933 in 2022, which was recorded at 897 in 2023. The sex ratio of Mahendragarh was recorded at 887, which was 907 a year ago. The sex ratio of Sonipat was 894 in 2022, which was recorded at 898 in 2023. At the same time, in Ambala a decline of 15 points was recorded at 919.Haryana has been quite infamous in terms of sex ratio. In 2015, 876 girls were born for every 1000 boys in Haryana. However, after this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign from Panipat. After this, public awareness campaigns and many schemes for girls were started in the entire state. After that an increase in sex ratio was recorded in Haryana. 923 were recorded in 2019 and 922 in 2020.