The hospital that Dr.Ganesh Rakh started in 2007 in Pune delivers girl babies for free. This is done as part of the doctor’s effort to reverse Indian’s preference for male children.

As Dr Rakh said to reporters, “As a medical professional I have seen the torture that a mother undergoes when she comes to know that she has delivered a girl, because regressive social norms are not only anti-women but are even anti-girl child.”

The preference for the male child in India has led to an estimated 12,700,000 sex-selective abortions of girls from 2000 to 2014. The lowest number of girls is found in Punjab, where there are just 300 girls for every 1,000 boys. Having to give dowry when marrying off a girl and also the fact that males are supposed to care for parents in their old age are major reasons for the preference.

As Dr.Rakh said in an interview, “It’s not just me who has witnessed how relatives thronging the hospital on D[elivery]-Day hug each other when a boy is born and disappear when a girl is born. Even other doctors see it every day in maternity wards of hospitals. The tension on the pregnant woman for nine months is so severe and acute that you can actually see it in the fluctuations of her haemoglobin and blood pressure.”

It was in 2012 that Dr.Rakh’s hospital started delivering girl babies for free. Since then the hospital has brought to life 432 female babies. When he first bounced the idea, his staff were skeptical. But he persisted and proved that earnings from other procedures cover for the free service. It’s now a common practice for the staff members to bake cakes for relatives to celebrate a new daughter.

The idea was adopted by many of the doctor’s classmates from medical school. Now, around 3,000 doctors in Maharshtra have signed up for offering a discount or refusing doing sex determination.

Dr.Rakh has also initiated a campaign to save the girl child and also gives talks in villages to promote the same.

Image credits: bbc.com

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