With a sex ratio as skewered as in Gujarat, a state hospital has come up with a unique way to promote giving birth to girl child. Ahmedabad-based Sindhu Hospital now offers a full waiver of hospital charges to couples if their newborn is a girl.
Managing director of the establishment, Mahadev Lohana said, "For years, we observed that majority of women who got admitted for deliver hoped and prayed for a boy. Sweets would be distributed on birth of a male child but a girl's arrival would met with stoic acceptance. The trust decided it was time to celebrate arrival of a daughter." The hospital even celebrates the birth of every girl child in the hospital. "The country and every community needs to celebrate birth of a girl. Even in Sindhi samaj, there are nearly 850 girls per 1000 boys. This has to change," Lohana said. The hospital said around 150 couples have already registered in the hospital to make the best of the offer.
While the move is a baby step compared to the ignorance of the society, it is a step indeed!
