Five crore female foetuses 'terminated' last year: Devi

Gurgaon (Haryana): Around five crore female foetuses in the country were "terminated" last year, Haryana Health Minister Kartar Devi said today.

"It is sad and unfortunate that around five crore female foetuses were terminated in India last year," Devi said, while inaugurating an alternative clinic in the Civil hospital here.

The health minister said the sex ratio in the state the was "very alarming". "We must not consider girls as a burden on the family," she said and added that girls can bring honour to their families, giving the example of Indira Gandhi.

The clinic 'Ayush centre' is the first in the state to provide treatment using ayurved, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy. She also asked doctors to serve patients without any "greed".

State Health Services Secretary Urvashi Gulati said the state government had increased budget allocation by 60 per cent for department. She said an MRI machine costing Rs. 5.75 crore has been sanctioned for Gurgaon, second in the state after Rohtak PGI.

She informed that around 16 delivery huts in Gurgaon, have been made functional to reduce the infant mortality rate (IMR) which stood at 59 per thousand live births in the state. She said 200 more delivery huts would be constructed in the coming year.

She added the state government intended to reduce maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from the present 300 mothers per one lakh mothers to below 100 by 2010.

Source: Newkeralam.com