PHOTO: REUTERS
Modi told a largely female audience in Haryana -- the state with the lowest ratio of female to male births -- that they must resist pressure from family and society to abort girls.
"The prime minister of the country is begging you to save the lives of girls," Modi said as he launched a campaign entitled "Save your daughters, Educate your daughters".
"We have to change our thinking and stop believing that boys are superior to girls.
"We should change our mentality. We have to urgently create a balance in the sex ratio to bring stability or face the consequences."
Modi also urged doctors to stop performing gender-based abortions and instead use their skills to save lives.
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Female foeticide is common in India, particularly in rural areas, where many parents still prefer sons to carry on the family name.
Last year the United Nations warned that the gender imbalance in the country had reached emergency proportions.
The government has identified 100 districts where there are only between 837 and 875 girls born per 1,000 boys, a gender imbalance it deems alarming.
Pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Nevertheless, a 2011 study in the British medical journal The Lancet found that up to 12 million Indian girls had been aborted over the last three decades in India.
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@Neighbor:
I am not sure that rapes are mushrooming. Rather, more rapes are reported due to greater sympathy for the victim and less social stigma for the family in the society. Also media extensively reports on rapes and protests against rapes to build pressure on the administration and that is a good thing.
@Ahmed.S: Yes very unfortunately female foeticide is not uncommon but these numbers are guesswork based on the sex ratio in the population via-A-vis what should be able the sex ratio.
Even sex determination is illegal in India , so there can be no authentic figures.
I am glad that the problem is being openly talked about since it needs both policy dimension and social reform.
While clearly this terrible problem exists in India, to a slightly smaller extent it also exists in Pakistan going by its sex ratio.
And mind every intelligent reader here. It is a common practice of every Indian doctor to report to "British medical journal The Lancet " whenever they abort a female child. How else can they get the precise number of 12 million in three decades ??? Hmm ???
@psych: Ignorance is bliss isn't it for you? Pakistan's sex ratio isn't stellar either:
Indian average sex ratio: 930 females for 1000 boys for total population Pakistan average sex ratio: 940 females for 1000 boys for total population
This is from CIA world book for 2014.
At least we recognize its an issue and have lot of steps in place to reverse the phenomenon though progress is slow. In your country no one has time for it nor it is being recognized as an issue.
Next time you decide to hurl sarcastic comments at others pehle apne girebaan me jhaak kar dekh lein...
@Pity: He is focusing on his own country. Does not have time to think about others.
Everyone here talks about better PR of india, but what they dont realize is indians themselves exposes their shortcomings. You cannot fix a problem if you dont recoganiz them.
No wonder India is witnessing a mushrooming growth of gender related violence, rapes, flesh trade, prostitution. It is assumed that skewed gender ratio is the first sign of upheavals and turmoil in the society.
A 2011 study in the British medical journal The Lancet found that up to 12 million Indian girls had been aborted over the last three decades in India. This is unbelievable and sad, says a lot about the gender discrimination in India and the skewed gender ratio.
12 million Indian girls killed due to female foeticide is horrible statistics, can't believe it.
Excellent use of the bully pulpit of the office for social awareness where it is needed. The challenge to India is to uplift the 300 million plus poor economically and in social education. No GoI can shy away from these responsibilities and India had come a long way in short span.
Lol shining india lol
Its better if PM sahab focuses on the issues being faced by his country and let the neighbors handle their own.