For an area where girls are reeling under socio-economic stress and are allegedly married in neighbouring state of Haryana for alleged ‘incentives’, the new strictures which are being implemented by Sirmaur district administration may come as a reality check for ambitious ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme.

The district administration which seemed to be peeved over the repeated occurrence of such incidents, have now decided to introduce strict monitoring on implementation of schemes, meant for girls and women, especially ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme.

“It has been witnessed that despite being various grants allotted to the panchayats and other officials for the welfare of women, the scenario on the ground hasn’t changed over the years,” Sirmaur Deputy Commissioner (DC), Lalit Jain told The Statesman.

Jain said the administration has now decided to stop the grant of such panchayats, where the scheme isn’t implemented properly or there are incidents of discrimination against the girl child.

“We have directed all the panchayats and their officials till ward members to ensure that the girl child is not discriminated against or otherwise, the grant under ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme would be stopped,” he said.

In addition, a plantation drive would be conducted in the village on the birth of the girl child and the tree would bear the name of a girl on a metal plaque.

The administration is also planning to send a letter to the mother (which would be addressed to the child as well) of the girl child, telling her to celebrate the birth every year.

The letter would be signed by the DC and it is aimed at making the girl child proud whenever she is able to read the letter.

A call center is also on the anvil for girls to guide them in their career and on 24 January every year, the meritorious girls would be conferred with Golden Girl award.

“Besides this, all Sub Divisional Magistrates have been asked to monitor and inspect clinics in their respective areas to curb the practice of prenatal tests, if any,” Jain said, adding they aim to increase present sex ratio from 930 to around 960 or 970.

It is worthwhile to mention here that the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Shillai area of Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh had conducted a survey through Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) officials on marriages of poor and illiterate Shillai girls to men from neighbouring states in 2016.

The survey had indicated at 1000 very poor and almost illiterate girls from 141 villages in the sub-division got married outside, mostly in Haryana (which has low sex ratio) over the last one and a half decade over ‘undeclared benefits’.

The survey was intended at tracing such girls after marriages as there were reports that such girls were in pathetic condition and their marriages were not registered due to unawareness.

The report had led to the visit of a fact-finding team of National Women Commission under its member Rekha Sharma, though the then government including the State Women Commission had denied such trend to be prevailing in the area.