Sumerpur (Pali): It is common for governments to take measures to encourage the birth of baby girls, but at Sumerpur's community heath centre (CHC), it is an individual who has taken this onus on himself.

For the past seven months now, 65-year-old Jitendra Kumar Jain arrives at the CHC daily with packs of ghee - to be distributed to women who have delivered a baby girl. In case, he is unable to make it on a particular day, someone from his family delivers the packs of clarified butter.

"Not that a kilo of ghee is precious, it is only a token of appreciation for women who are bringing these priceless gems into the world. In these times of skewed sex ratios, it is important to spread joy at the time of birth of daughters," said Jain, himself a father of three daughters.

The family themself launched the 'Pyari Bitiya Janam Uphaar Yojna' on the day of Raksha Bandhan in August 2015. Since then they have distributed ghee to as many as 158 mothers. "We want our efforts to help in spreading awareness about the importance of a girl child. This was necessary as the number of girls are on a decline and it is a difficult task to find a suitable girl for marriage," Jain said. His wife Santosh Devi, brother Subhash Chandra Agarwal and his wife Asha Devi are also frequent visitors at the CHC.

The Jains have become a known face in the CHCs. "They come every day and with their own hands distribute desi ghee," said Sumerpur CHC incharge Dr Praveen Arora, adding that they also distribute a baby kit to the family of the newborn babies irrespective of their sex.

Praising the efforts of Jains, Kuldeep Singh Deora, block chief medical officer (Sumerpur), said, "We also cut cakes in the ward quite frequently on birth of a girl child, which is mostly when there are more than five to six girl child delivered in a day." He said that these are small efforts from their end to improve sex ratio in Sumerpur.

"In the past one year, the sex ratio at the time of birth at Sumerpur in Pali district has increased from 923 to 967, between 2014-15 and 2015-16," K C Saini, Pre-conception Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act district (Pali) coordinator said.

He said that Sumerpur is one of the blocks in Pali, which has registered a steep rise in sex ratio at birth.



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