Sex ratio rises from 956 to 1,005 in four months in Krishnagiri, says Collector
He was speaking at the three-day orientation-cum-training workshop for field staff on the legislative protections for women and children organised under the Protect the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child programme under the aegis of the department of social welfare.
The illegal sex determination rackets were singularly responsible for the abysmal sex ratio of Krishnagiri, which was 956 females per 1,000 males until four months ago. However, sustained crackdown on such rackets in Salem, Tirupathur districts, and Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh with the support of respective district Collectors, has increased the sex ratio in the last four months, the Collector said.
Addressing the administration's challenge of tackling child marriages, the Collector said, child marriage also attracted POCSO Act, and that it was imperative for the field staff to highlight the value of the girl child and to educate her. Child marriages came with child pregnancies, postpartum complications, anaemia, and multiple pregnancies, among an array of issues detrimental to the health and well-being of the girl.
Come what may, educate the girl child and the rest is taken care of, given the industrial spread in Hosur itself, Collector Dinesh Kumar added. 'A girl pulled out of education and pushed into hand-to-mouth wage labour as opposed to getting an education and getting employment with a fair wage must be highlighted,' Mr. Dinesh Kumar told the field staff.
Similarly, employability also came with the assurance of safe stay through government hostels. 'Thozhi', the government hostel has been set up in Hosur, and another construction is under way in Krishnagiri. 'These state-of-the-art hostels provide the necessary security to the women seeking to enter the industrial work-force through education,' Mr. Dinesh Kumar said.
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