Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who is considered to be a hard task master, could not prevent herself from breaking into tears before school children when a young girl spelt out the agony of an unborn girl child to highlight the issue of female foeticide.
The Chief Minister was in Kheda district yesterday where she visited the Harej primary school to enrol students as a part of annual school enrolment drive of the state government.
During the function, a class nine student Ambika Gohel, spelt out the agony of unborn girl children, who are killed in the womb of their mothers, as a part of a shameful yet rampant practice of female foeticide, resulting in a skewed sex ratio across many states of the country.
Ambika read out a letter from an unborn girl child to her mother requesting to allow her to take birth in the world.
The heart touching presentation of the pain of meeting death, without even being allowed to born, moved one and all and even Ambika started crying.
After Ambika, read out the letter, the 74-year-old first woman CM of Gujarat hugged the girl as both of them were seen crying.
Patel was later seen wiping her tears with a napkin.
The Gujarat government has taken elaborate steps to curb female foeticide from the state. In 2014, in a move to curb the dwindling sex ratio, the state government had instituted a cash prize for citizens who blow the whistle on doctors and parents who indulge in sex-determination tests aimed at eliminating foetuses in the womb.
As per Census 2011, the sex ratio of Gujarat, one of the most progressive and industrialised state, stands at 918 for 1,000 males, a shade lower than the 920 that existed in 2001. The sex ratio in rural areas of the state is 947, while in urban areas it is 880. The Surat district has the lowest sex ratio.
