The President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, has expressed her concern over the decline in sex ratio in the country, noting that sex ratio between the age group of up to six years was the lowest after Independence.
Patil was addressing an international symposium on women and child empowerment at Hali Park in Haryana’s Panipat yesterday. The symposium was organised to mark the 175th birth anniversary of noted poet and social reformer Maulana Khawaja Altaf Hussain, called ‘Hali Panipati’.
Patil said the statistics of Census 2011 were shocking as far as sex ratio was concerned. In the age group of 0 to six years, there were 914 girls per thousand boys and this being the lowest after freedom of the country was an issue of concern. After the statistics of Census 2001, the figures of Census 2011 indicate that there had been an improvement in sex ratio in Haryana.
Describing the female foeticide as a heinous crime, Patil said that every person should come forward to eradicate this social evil and ensure equal status for women in all sphere of life. She urged the social workers and non-governmental orga-nisations to work for the empowerment of women to ensure overall development of society.
