By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, October 9, 2019: The Vanishing Girls Campaign of the Indian unit of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF India) will conduct on October 11 a musical program to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child.

“Asmita Theatre,” a well-known theater group of the national capital, will present a play based on the theme of the event #giveherLIFE (LIFE: Love, Inheritance, Freedom, and Equality) at Dilli Haat in central Delhi.

This will be followed by a performance by the bands from two colleges of Delhi University — Kamla Nehru and Hansraj Colleges. Also listed is a special performance by Fr. Agnel School Choir.

To commemorate the occasion, the Vanishing Girls Campaign launched a nationwide online photography competition under the theme #giveherLIFE to bring awareness about the cause of the Girl Child at the beginning of September.

The contest ran from September 8 to September 24. More than 500 entries were received from both amateur and professional photographers.

Leading photographers from the country such as Altaf Qadri, Riddhi Parekh, Karan Khanna, Paromita Chatterjee, and William Chang formed the panel of judges.

Anushree Bernard, coordinator of the Vanishing Girls Campaign, stressed the need to arrest the rampant practice of sex selective abortions in the country.

She said ADF India’s Vanishing Girls Campaign through various programs has helped raise awareness of the Pre-Conception Pre Natal-Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 that strictly prohibits sex determination and sex selection.

At the same time, Bernard says under the able leadership of the federal Ministry of the Women and Child Development, the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, the child sex ratio across has improved considerably in certain regions.

The Vanishing Girls Campaign is an initiative of ADF India, which has a network of lawyers advocating for the right to life to arrest the practice of female foeticide.

The campaign was launched in January 2016 with the aim of focussing on the need for a strict implementation of the PCPNDT (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act especially in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.