It is a matter of grave concern that the census of 2001 reveals that Haryana has the lowest female / male ratio among the major states of the Country at 861 females per thousand males as against the national average of 933 females per thousand males.  The position with regard to children in the age group of 0-6 years is even worse with just 820 girls per thousand boys.  This state of affairs appears to be the result of large scale sex determination tests being done in the State in turn leading to female foeticide being done on a large scale.  This despite the fact that the law (PNDT ACT) specifically prohibits sex determination.  Problems such as sex determination and female foeticide as also other social problems of dowry, violence against women, early marriage of girls and low female literacy levels are problems which cannot be effectively targeted without the effective and substantial involvement & commitment of the community coupled by action as required by the Govt. as envisaged under the various Acts.

            It is well known that social problems and social change cannot be brought about merely on the strength of Law or through Government action alone.  A necessary and essential condition is the existence of a suitable environment in terms of heightened community awareness of the problems and willingness of the community to not only identify with the problems and accept that such problems exist but also to take affirmative action in finding solutions both in terms of isolating the Law breakers and assisting law enforcers as well as in getting conforming behavior in accordance with law from the large majority who tend to be silent sufferers and fence sitters waiting for some one to take the initiative.

            If any meaningful impact has to be made in tackling such social problems, it is essential that a constituency interested in finding solutions to such problems is created which would work in partnership with the Govt. and Law enforcing agencies, with regulating agencies, with the judicial system and with NGOs working in these areas.  The constituency would have to consist of aware and conscious educated men and women, boys and girls who would provide the critical mass which would act as a watchdog and also provide the necessary manpower in the fight against social evils some of which have been listed above.

       I)  Education System :

            The education system provides us with a ready-made pool which can contribute substantially towards creating such a critical mass and constituency.

            In the School system, from classes IX to XII we have about 8 lakh students in both government as well as private schools and another 2 lakh students in the College / University / professional / vocational system.  Thus there are about 10 lakh students, boys and girls spread all over the State in about 2900-3000 institutions in both rural and urban locations.

            It is these 10 lakh adolescents who would be the future mothers & fathers, who would either be victims of the social evils or be the ones who would end up perpetrating social evils.  We must prevent this from happening.  Rather than allowing them from becoming either “victims” or “perpetrators” or “silent sufferers” we need to induct these students in out fight against social evil such as sex-determination & female foeticide.  They are at a stage where they could be moulded & influenced.

   a)   In order to get their commitment in tackling these issues, all students of Schools, Colleges, Universities, ITI’s, Professional, technical and vocational institutions should take the oath every year that: -

                                                    i)       They or their families would not be involved in the giving or taking of Dowry and that
             they would work towards eliminating this social evil.

                                                    ii)       That they and their families would not get sex-determination test done or get
               female foeticide done and that they would work towards elimination this social evil.

                   Copies of oath in Hindi on both these aspect are enclosed 

     Directors Secondary, Higher Education, Technical Education, it is and Vocational Education,
     Medical Education, Agriculture may get these oaths administered to students in all
     Institutions under their control including the four Universities.

  b)  Schools and colleges have NSS programmes for children along with NCC.  Participation in NSS & NCC programmes could be made compulsory and used for advocating & spreading awareness about social issues.  On the pattern of women ‘Cells in Colleges; Similar Social Awareness Cells could be created in all Higher & Senior Secondary Schools for students of Class IX, X, XI & XII.  The role of these Cells would be to spread awareness about social problems in their villages & towns & thereby help in creating a suitable environment for tackling such problems.

            In addition, on the pattern of Professional colleges where students are required to undergo summer trainings all students of Class IX, X, XI & XII could during their summer vacation be made to prepare a status paper listing out the principal social problems of their village / towns & how they propose to deal with these problems.  This step in addition to giving village & urban youth something meaningful to do during their vacations would also generate a better understanding of social problems not only among the students but also among the community which in turn should force the community to think in terms of solution to such problems.

            Directors School and Higher Education may work out operational details.

   II)  There are about 170 Colleges in the State (Govt., aided and non-aided) all having women cells.  Since a majority of these colleges are located in urban areas, being further concentrated in District Headquarters all such women cells could be merged at the district level and town level to form a Women’s Forum which could act as a watch dog group for women’s problems in addition to spreading awareness about women related issues.

The Constitution of the District or the Town level Forum would be

                 i)     Members of Women’s Cell of all Colleges of the town.
     ii)    All Class-I Officers of the District / Town.
     iii)    All Mahila Corporators.
     iv)   All Lady Lecturers of College.
     v)    CDPO / PO
     vi)    All Lady Doctors of the town.
     vii)   President IMA
     viii)  Persons from the National / State Media located in the area.
     ix)   The Chairperson of this Forum should be the senior most or most educated Lady of
          the Town.
     x)   The Convener of the Committee would be P.O./CDPO located in the area.

III)  Social Sector : -

In every village we should also induct the educated people into our fight against prevalent social evils.  In every village a similar watch dog forum of 15 to 20 most educated men and women of the village would be formed which would monitor social problems in the village.  In order to give recognition and importance to education this Forum should consists of 10 to 15 most educated women and 4 to 5 most educated men / boys residents of the village.  This Forum should be headed by the most educated woman of the village and should have as its ex-officio members:

               i)        All Mahila Sarpanches / Panches
   ii)       All Women employees, living in the Village.
   iii)      All Anganwari Workers.
   iv)     The most educated Anganwari Worker would act as the Convener of this Forum.

 City / Town / Village Fora as above would be constituted by DWCD through Pos / CDPOs.  This exercise they should complete over the next two months.

Meetings of these fora may be held at least once a month or twelve meetings a year for rural areas and once in two months or six meetings a year in urban areas.

These fora at the town as well as village level would not only act as watch dogs monitoring women and child related problems in their area and reporting all incidents affecting women and children to the district authorities, appropriate authorities or other law enforcement agency as the situation warrants but also work towards organizing the community to deal with their problems.  They could also associate all other women groups in the area such as Mahila Mandals, Jagriti Mandalies, Self Help Groups, Mahila Swasthya Sangh, Village Education Committee, other NGOs, or socially aware individuals working in the social sector in their area.

These fora should keep a special watch on the following problem areas

            i)      Sex determination tests being done or being got done by residents of the area leading to
    female foeticide.  A watch should be kept on those Clinics notorious for doing such tests.

ii)     The practice of giving or taking dowry & the practice of display dowry.

iii)     All forms of violence against women whether it is domestic violence or otherwise.

iv)     Whether all girls are being enrolled in Schools, or some are left out & reasons for the
      same whether there is a dropout after enrolment and the reasons for the same.

v)     Whether girls have problems in going to School and whether they face problems in
     School, whether sesxual harassment of women / girls is taking place in the villages.

vi)     Whether there is prevalence or early marriage of girls before legal age in the City / Village
     & what should be done about it.

vii)     Whether the Infant Mortality Rate in the Village / Town / Area is going down & or not.

           viii)     Whether nutritional level of children, especially the girl child, is improving or not.

            ix)    Whether women especially during the period of pregnancy & while nursing are getting
     adequate nutrition.

            x)     Whether all pregnant mothers & children are getting immunized against BCG, DPT, Polio &
     Tetanus etc.  Whether all pregnant women are taking the requyisite iron folic acid tablets
      given to them.

            xi)     In addition to the above, area specific women and child related problems could also be
     monitored.

These Fora in Urban & Village area could form the core around which the critical mass would be built, which could, then take the responsibility and work in partnership with Govt. in tackling the social evils that plague our society, evils which affect the dignity of women and children and also help in changing the mind set in respect of status of women, children & particularly of the girl child, in society at large.

Elected Bodies and Peoples’ Representatives

In addition to the above a commitment is also required to be taken from the elected bodies, especially from all women elected against womens’ reservation quota at the village, blocks, district, town and city levels for recognizing the existence of such problems.  They must raise the above and other womens’ and child, particularly girl child, issues in the meetings of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities, Zila Parishads and Municipal Councils / Corporations and do maximum to eliminate the problems from within their respective areas of jurisdiction beside rendering all help to the Govt. and other law enforcing agencies for eradicating these evils.

DWCD will prepare detailed guidelines in this regard and send them to every Mahila Sarpanch Panch and Mahila Corpoators.

It is essential that elected bodies are also inducted into this campaign.  It is, therefore, requested that elected bodies such as Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities, Zila Parishad, Municipal Committees / Councils / Corporations functioning under your control may be asked to pass formal resolution that they would do all within their means to eliminate the social problems mentioned above within their respective areas of jurisdiction and render all help to the Govt. and other law enforcing agencies towards eradicating these evils.

Director Panchayats, Director Urban Development and Deputy Commissioners may get the said resolutions passed from bodies under their jurisdiction.

For taking action on the above lines, Commissioners of divisions, Higher Education Department, Secondary Education Department, Technical Education Department, Industrial Training and Vocational Education Department,Health department,Urban Development Department, Development and Panchayat Department, Rural Development Department,Agriculture Department, All Deputy Commissioners, All Superitendents of police and Programme Officers(ICDS) have been written vide Letter No. 45730-800-WCD/2003 dated 17-2-2003.