ANDHRA PRADESH OFFER RS 1 LAKH TO "ONE DAUGHTER ONLY" FAMILIES

March 11, 2005 - (Reuters) The southern state of Andhra Pradesh hopes the offer of cash to bring up daughters will address the problem of an imbalanced sex ratio and improve the status of the girl-child.
 
The Andhra Pradesh government is offering Rs 100,000 in cash to families who opt to have just one daughter and no more children, in an attempt to balance the state’s sex ratio, which weighs heavily in favour of males.

Under the scheme, the government will pay the money to the daughter when she reaches the age of 20, provided her parents have no more children. Also, both parents will have to undergo verified birth control operations, say state government officials.

Effective from April 1, 2005, the scheme includes additional cash incentives -- parents will receive Rs 1,250 a year towards the girl’s education from Classes 9 to 12 (ages 14-17).

“This initiative is to ensure the continuation of girls in schools and junior colleges,” health secretary C B S Venkata Ramana said. Also, in the event of the death of either of the girl’s parents, the family will immediately be given Rs 50,000.

In Andhra Pradesh, which has a sex ratio of 943 females to 1,000 males, sex determination tests and female foeticide are common, especially in small towns and rural areas of this largely agricultural state. “I consider it a shame that in our country we ascertain the sex of the baby before it enters the world,” Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy said while announcing the scheme on the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8.

Reddy also promised stringent measures against sex determination laboratories mushrooming all over the state. “These labs encourage female foeticide and/or the illegal sale of girl-children to unauthorised agencies.”

Five years ago, Andhra Pradesh was rocked by the discovery of a child adoption racket in which tribals from backward regions sold their infant daughters to illegal adoption agencies.

“Over 500 girl-children acquired by such agencies were finally lodged in government baby centres,” said G D Aruna, director of the state’s women and child welfare department.

India has banned pre-natal sex testing through an act of Parliament, but non-government agencies say the law is basically toothless and the tests continue.

Girl-children are largely unwanted in India -- a substantial majority of Indian couples still view a male child as a potential breadwinner who will provide for them in their old age.

Daughters, meanwhile, leave their homes after they are married and become part of their husbands’ families. It is this mindset that the Andhra Pradesh government’s scheme aims to change, by making the birth of a daughter a financially lucrative option.

Also, as part of its new campaign to promote the girl-child, the Andhra government has appointed India’s leading woman tennis player, teenager Sania Mirza who comes from the state capital Hyderabad, ‘state ambassador of the girl-child’. The government hopes that 18-year-old Mirza, who recently became the first Indian woman to advance to the third round of a Grand Slam tennis tournament, will serve as an example of what girls, if provided the right opportunities, can achieve. As part of the campaign, Mirza will feature on billboards with the caption: ‘Your daughter may be the next champion’.

Taken from: http://www.infochangeindia.org/WomenItop.jsp?section_idv=1#3802