core sector communique

Pledge on Eliminating Gender Biased Sex-Selection and Violence Against Women

In view of the declining sex ratio, from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has recommended to all public servants in all tiers of Central, State and Local Self Governments to take an oath /pledge on preventing sex selective abortion of female foetus on 9th August 2012, a day commemorated in the history of India as Quit India Movement. In his letter to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories, and the Secretaries of all Ministries and Departments of the Government of India, Sh. Prem Narain, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, has stated that the Public Servants have a significant role in arresting the decline in child sex ratio at all tiers of public governance, be it in prevention, advocacy, or in implementing the laws of the land that prohibit sex selective abortion. It is therefore important that the public servants are formally made aware of their role in lending a hand in this social cause. This pledge would symbolize the collective resolve of the Public Servants of India to make the social evil of sex selective abortion to ‘quit India’ for good. The pledge reads as follows- “Recognising that the Constitution of India guarantees the rights and freedoms of men and women equally without any barrier, bias, or discrimination and the same are threatened by the illegal and damaging practice of gender biased sex selection; WE the public servants of India hereby take a solemn pledge today that we shall act in all possible ways individually and collectively to ELIMINATE gender biased sex selection that threatens the birth and survival of the girl child; AND ENSURE that girls are born, loved and nurtured and grow up to become empowered citizens of our country. JAI HIND.”