CHENNAI: Two suspected
female infanticide
cases have emerged in Theni and Madurai districts in recent times, however, a report tabled by the state
government
in the assembly on Saturday says that only one-fourth of the fund - 39 lakh of 1.57 crore - allotted for the cradle baby scheme was spent in the last four years, until January.
The scheme, launched by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 1992 in Salem, was the first of its kind in the country to eradicate the practice of female
infanticide
in certain vulnerable pockets of the state. The babies received at the government-run cradle baby centres are given for adoption to people, both within and outside the country. A policy note tabled by social welfare minister V Saroja in the House said the government had provided 44.12 lakh in the budget estimate for the next fiscal too.
The DMK, the main opposition, charged that continuation of the evil practice in the state was a blot on the AIADMK government. "Government's failure to create proper awareness is the reason for the scourge continuing. What are the officials doing? The state should own up the responsibility. These practices have taken Tamil Nadu 30 years backwards. There is no protection for women in the state," Tuticorin MLA P Geetha Jeevan alleged.
Saroja said that since the inception of the scheme in 1992, about 5,400 babies were received at the centres and freed from the clutches of death. As many as 161 babies, including 52 male babies were received under the scheme during the current fiscal. District officials had been instructed to take stringent action to put an end to the menace, she said.
Reeling out various
welfare measures
, the minister said the government had deposited more than 1,523 crore in the names of 9.7 lakh girls. The maturity amount would be available to the girls once they complete 18 years of age.
DMK MLA A P Nandakumar alleged that districts like Dharmapuri, Theni, Dindigul and Namakkal had seen a fall in child sex ratio owing to female infanticide. Bride grooms in these districts were looking for brides in other districts, he said. Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami intervened at this stage and said the government had reduced the maternal and infant mortality rate in the state.
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