'Beti Bachao' mission: Pune doctor delivers baby girls for free at his hospital

A doctor from Pune has embarked on a mission to save the girl child as part of which he not only waives the fees if a baby girl is born in his hospital but also makes sure the little one gets a rousing welcomeAs part of his Beti Bachao Janandolan initiative Dr Ganesh Rakh who runs a maternitycummultispeciality hospital in Hadapsar area in Maharashtra has been trying to create awareness against female foeticide and infanticideHe claims to have delivered more than 2400 girl children in the last 11 years without charging fees from their parents and relativesTalking to PTI Dr Rakh said the small initiative that he started in 2012 at his Medicare Hospital has now spread across various states and in some African countriesBefore 2012 in the initial years of the hospital we came across different experiences here where in some cases if a girl was born the family members would shy away from coming to see her That picture struck me and gave me a fillip to do something to save the girl child and create awareness about gender equality said the doctor while holding a newborn girl in his armsAlso Read From Chhattisgarh to Maharashtra Forest dept seeks help of experts to reduce manelephant conflictIf a boy was born some families would happily come to the hospital and pay the bills but if the child was a girl there was an indifferent approach in some cases he saidIn order to support the cause we decided to waive the entire medical fees if a girl was born and later christened the initiative as Beti Bachao Janandolan In the last 11 years we have delivered more than 2400 girl children without charging any fees he saidDr Rakh said as per a government survey there were more than six crore female foeticide cases in the last 10 years This is a kind of genocide he claimedThe reason for female foeticide is peoples preference for a son This is not limited to one region state or a country but it is a global societal issue he saidAs per our survey of late there has been a remarkable drop in cases of female infanticide and this is a positive takeaway Dr Rakh addedDr Shivdeep Undre working at the same hospital said as part of the mission they are reaching out to various states in the country and conducting gender sensitisation programmesWaseem Pathan who was last month blessed with twins a girl and a boy said he was overwhelmed by the way the hospital staff welcomed the birth of his childrenOn October 26 we were blessed with a boy and a girl As per the hospitals policy the entire fees for the girl childs medical expenses was waived he saidPathan said the hospital organised a small celebration at the time of the discharge of his wife and childrenThey decorated the lobby with flowers and balloons cut a cake raised slogans in support of the girl child and showered flower petals on my twins when we were leaving the hospital he saidDr Lalasaheb Gaikwad who is also associated with the mission at the hospital said the objective behind such a celebration at the time of a childs discharge is to make the parents feel proud and make the birth of a baby girl a special eventThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever