look news india
Mumbai: The toll-free helpline 104, launched to address the problem of illegal sex determination and female foeticide, is receiving more than ten calls every hour. The helpline, launched in February 2022, has received more than a thousand calls related to Garcade gender testing and feticide cases in the last five days. The ratio of girls compared to boys is continuously decreasing in the state.
The helpline aims to improve the state's declining sex ratio, which has still not reached pre-Covid levels. There were 919 girls per thousand boys in the state in 2019, which will reduce to 904 in 2022.
Despite incentives being offered to those who help successfully identify criminals, the administration is struggling to improve this ratio. Earlier such complaints were registered on Sampath toll-free helpline 18002334475.
The deputy director of health services said all necessary training has been provided to the staff and the government also plans to reward people reporting incidents on the toll-free number. For complaints identified and verified by the State Health Minister, Rs. A reward of one lakh has also been announced.
Apart from this, the Health Department said that the work of creating a separate website has also been started so that information and complaints about female feticide can be easily registered.