Team Herald
PANJIM: The NGO Bailancho Saad has expressed its concern over declining sex ratio at birth below 900 females per 1,000 males in the State.
According to Bailancho Saad convenor Dr Sabina Martins, this is for the first time that the sex ratio at birth has slipped in the State below 900 females per 100 males as per the National Family Health Survey 2022. She said that the sex ratio was always good in the State and it was 938 females per 1,000 males prior to 2022 and now it was 838 females per 1,000 males, which is shocking.
“The statistics published by National Family Health Survey is disheartening. In the past while I was a member of Goa State Commission for Women, we did a sample survey to study the mindset of doctors. We asked them two questions and found that most of the doctors stated that if their first child is a boy then they will not go for second child. And if the first is a girl child then they will go for the second child,” said Dr Martins.
She said that people don’t go for second child if the first child is a boy and stressed the need to address the mindset of the people not wanting the girl child. She said that during programmes in the village, the Bailancho Saad observed that discriminatory practices prevailing in the society.
Dr Martins said that the State has enacted various laws to ensure safety and security of children. “We have worked to put system in place. Goa Children’s Act is an exercise to provide safe environment to children,” she said.
She further said that most of the suggestions made by the Bailancho Saad have been incorporated in the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, which prohibits sex selection, before or after conception.
According to Dr Martins, very often parents shy away from getting their daughters married for the fear of sharing or partying of with their ancestral property. The government need to study all these matters.