Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 21: Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmed Khan today said that no doubt a lot of improvement has taken place in providing better health care to common people of the State but still special efforts are being made by the Government to further strengthen and upgrade the health care institutions.
He said that there has been a lot of improvement in terms of infrastructure, machinery equipments, manpower etc which helped in rejuvenating the healthcare system and resorting faith of the public in the system. However, he expressed concern about the decline sex ratio in the State.
The Minister was addressing at a valedictory function organised in connection with “National Seminar on Declining Sex-Ratio in North -West India by Department of Sociology, University of Jammu in collaboration with Centre for Women’s studies, University of Jammu, sponsored by ICSSR, North -Western Regional Centre-Chandigarh, Jammu University.
Mr. Khan said that Government has already taken various steps to curb this menace and PC & PNDT Act 2002 is already in vogue in the State and is being implemented in letter and spirit on the ground.
The Minister said that unless and until the members of the Civil Society, Senior Citizens especially women would not come forward and co-operate with Government in implementing law, it is not possible for the Government alone to die-down this heinous crime in the society. He said that the problem of declining sex ratio is a social problem. He also stressed for empowerment of women and providing them better education.
He said Government has already banned practice of sex determination and a number of illegal ultrasound centres have been sealed in the State. He said that prize money for giving information about such sex determination clinics has been raised from Rs 25000 to Rs.50000.
The Minister further said that Government has also involved religious leaders, Ulmas and senior citizens to aware the common people about the negative impact of sex declining ratio in the society.
On the occasion, the Minister distributed certificates among paper presenters and hoped that in future more such awareness camps would be held not only in cities but also in towns and remote areas also.
Prof. K. Chanana, Prof Rekha Chowdhry,Prof. Abha Chuhan,Prof. Jasbir Singh also addressed the participants.
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