In a unique initiative the Udhampur district administration officials facilitated mothers who gave birth to a girl child with presents on the occasion of Christmas.
District Development Commissioner Ravinder Kumar told ANI that this was a move to celebrate the birth of a girl child and to spread awareness and improve the efficiency of welfare services meant for girls under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP).
After the cake cutting with mothers and their daughters Kumar presented gifts and urged parents to educate their girls and treat them well.
"Our main motive is to aware the common masses about the BBBP scheme and we also facilitated the mothers who gave birth to a girl child to spread a message that daughters are very precious and we should celebrate their births," Ravinder Kumar told ANI.
"We have put immense efforts to change the mindset of society towards the birth of a girl child through awareness raising, training, sensitization and community mobilization on the ground. With the enforcement of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act 1994, the sex ratio has been improved in the area and now girls have access to proper education," he added.
PCPNDT Act was enacted to ban prenatal sex determination and to prevent female feticides and declining sex ratio across the country.
On the occasion, ARTO Udhampur Rachana Sharma asserted, "This initiative was taken to tell people that daughters can take our society ahead. In 2017, we had received the Prime Minister award for BBBP in Udhampur as sex ratio and education witnessed a remarkable boost here."
Notably, BBBP campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2015. In the first phase of BBBP, the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2015 selected a total of 100 districts through various states under multi-sectoral District Action Plans to train district-level officials and forefront workers to address and resolve the problems faced by girls since after their birth.
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