Officials seize ultrasound machines in bid to tackle a growing gender imbalance. India now has an estimated 914 females for every 1,000 males. SRINAGAR, India, Nov 12, 2011 (AFP) - Indian Kashmir Saturday announced cash rewards for residents who provide information about those carrying out pre-natal sex determination tests in an effort to stem a sharp rise in female foeticide.
"Every whistle blower will be given a cash prize of Rs 25,000 ($500) and his name would be kept secret," Sham Lal Sharma, the state's health minister said in a statement.
He said the step will help send a message "among the public and more people will come forward to provide information about those carrying out such tests".
Sharma's department in India's only Muslim-majority state has been seizing ultrasound scanners and enlisting religious leaders to save unborn girls.
The issue has united politicians, clerics and social activists in Jammu and Kashmir, a state best known for the deep, blood-stained divides caused by a 20-year-old Muslim separatist insurgency against Indian rule.
Provisional 2011 census data released at the end of March painted a bleak picture of India's gender imbalance, with a national child sex ratio of just 914 females to 1,000 males, the lowest figure since independence in 1947.
By far the most dramatic decline was in Jammu and Kashmir, where the ratio plunged to 859 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group, down by 82 points from 10 years ago.
The figures shocked the authorities in the scenic region.
The global sex ratio is 984 girls to every 1,000 boys, according to United Nations population data.
Married women in India face huge pressure to produce male children, who are seen as breadwinners while girls are often viewed as a financial burden as they require hefty dowries to be married off.
The first reaction of the Kashmir authorities to the census figures was a crackdown on the unlicensed use of ultrasound scanners.
Determining the sex of a foetus is illegal in India, but many clinics offer the service for a small fee, fuelling the demand for sex-selective abortions.
Lightweight, portable ultrasound machines mean tests can be carried out even in the most remote villages.
The health minister appealed to people "to share such information with the competent authority in the directorate of health services to stop the crime".
He also rewarded a person at a special ceremony in winter capital Jammu on Friday who had provided information and even helped the authorities in arresting a person who had conducted a sex-determination test.
The sharpest declines in the ratio were in the towns of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, heartland of the armed insurgency against Indian rule, which began in 1989.
Source: AFP
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