By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, July 25, 2019: The Government of National Capital Territory will collaborate with a Christian body to conduct a training program to address the alarming decline in Delhi’s child sex ratio.

The last Census in 2011 showed Delhi had only 871 girls for every 1000 boys.

“This implies that there is a dire need for a strict implementation of the PCPNDT (Prohibition of Sex Selection) 1994 Act across Delhi,” says a press release from the Indian unit of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Christian ministry that advocates for religious freedom and sanctity of life.

The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act the Indian parliament passed in 1994 aims to stop female feticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India. The act banned prenatal sex determination.

The Delhi state level program on July 26 at New Delhi’s India International Centre is part of the ADF India’s Vanishing Girls Campaign And Girls Count. It will be attended by District Appropriate Authorities as well as the District Nodal Officers dealing with PCPNDT Act.

The Delhi government’s Directorate of Family Welfare, Health and Family Welfare Department will collaborate with ADF India.

Anushree Bernard, coordinator for the Vanishing Girls Campaign who will moderate the program, states that “an enhanced implementation of the PCPNDT Act across Delhi will ensure that all girls will have the chance to live, dream and succeed.”

The program will highlight the importance for an effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act. It will also focus on the ‘Standard Operating Guidelines’ and the ‘Code of Conduct’ to be observed by them under the act.

Delhi state Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain, the program’s chief guest, will deliver the keynote address. Other speakers include Loreign Ovung, ADF India Trustee; Sanjay Parikh, senior advocate, Supreme Court of India; Uday Warunjikar, advocate, Bombay High Court; Varsha Deshpande, advocate, Lekh Ladki Abhiyan; Ifat Hamid, consultant (gender), PNDT Division, federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

They will speak on ‘Demystifying the PCPNDT Act’ and the ‘Standard Operating Guidelines.’