From having a skewed sex ratio to celebrating the birth of girls, Bhalgaon and some of its adjoining villages in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra have gone through a transformational journey to emerge as agents of change. These 20-odd villages in Gangapur tehsil witnessed their sex ratio improve by 29 per cent in a matter of two years - from 2015 to 2017 - under an initiative rolled out by a voluntary organisation called Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR).

The organisation's efforts have earned praise from the government authorities, who termed the results as encouraging. According to the WOTR, when it launched the project in 2015, the average child sex ratio in these villages was 863 girls per 1,000 boys, which improved to 1,113 girls per 1,000 boys in 2017. Preetilata Gaikwad, lead, Women Empowerment at WOTR, who has been leading the project in five districts of the state, said that in the initial period, changing people's perspective towards girl child was a big challenge.