NAWANSHEHAR: Changing the mindset of people and persuade them to turn their back on social evils like female foeticide through awareness campaigns alone, seems to be a Herculean task if the latest trends on sex ratio in the district are any indication.

In the current year, the male-female sex ratio till April was just 796, a big decline from 909 in 2006 when the district had come from behind to top the state in the matter. At that time, this was made possible by some extraordinary steps which included strict enforcement measures in the shape of regular monitoring of scanning centres and clinics by the then DC Krishan Kumar and subsequent registration of cases against the erring centres and persons.

In fact, as per 2001 census, the sex ratio in the Nawanshahr district was 808 and it was declining at an alarming rate in the subsequent years. And as per a survey conducted by the Child Development Department, the child sex ratio had come down to 774 in March 2005. Kumar, realizing the gravity of the situation launched a special campaign to control the menace in May 2005. This massive campaign which was later known as "Nawanshahr Model" across the country, included the constitution of a federation of district NGOs and its registration under the name "Upkar Coordination Society", holding of meetings at village, block, tehsil and district levels, tracking the pregnancies of expecting mothers, medical audit of scanning centres, adoption of villages by departmental officers and mobilization of youth by none other than by DC himself who daily held meetings with them.

The campaign also included some extraordinary measures like mourning of a baby girl in case of abortion preceded by sex determination test. All this resulted in the increase in sex ratio to over 900 in 77 villages out 475 in the district in a short span (in some villages the ratio had crossed even 1,000 mark). At that time, the national media had attributed the increase in sex ratio in Nawanshahr to the change in people's mindset brought about by aggressive campaigning of Upkar. But that was a fallacy, as it has now turned out. As soon as Kumar was shifted from the district, though the Upkar continued with its awareness campaign, the fear of law created by Kumar in the minds of the people too evaporated and thanks to the lackadaisical attitude in the matter shown by the successive administrations, Nawanshahr currently occupies a third place from bottom with Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts falling behind it with 794 and 736 sex ratios, respectively.

Gurvir Singh, Deepak Bali and Balwinder Kumar, activists of Nawanshahr-based NGO HELP (Human Empowerment League of Punjab) who got the information from Director, Health and Family Welfare, under the RTI Act on district -wise sex ratio in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 upto April, said that the data clearly proved that in the absence of strict administrative measures, awareness campaigns alone hardly deterred the people from committing crimes like femicide. According to HELP general secretary, Parvinder Singh Kittna, "the craze for male child in the state is such that parents do not stop at anything from finding the sex of the foetus and killing the girl child in the womb itself". "It seems that though campaigns at the social, political and religious levels do play some part in curbing evils like female foeticide, it is ultimately the strict enforcement of law that acts as a deterrent for the masses," maintained Kittna. Ludhiana currently tops the state with the sex ratio of 875. It is followed by Ropar and Kapurthala districts with 863 and 857 sex ratios.