Hospital to give Rs 1 lakh bond to second daughters

Surat: The Samast Patidar Aarogya Trust-run 550-bed Kiran Hospital would give bond of Rs 1 lakh to the second daughter born to a woman in the hospital from World Women's Day on March 8.
This initiative of the hospital under 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign is expected to benefit more than 150 girls this year. The hospital does free delivery of a girl child ever since it was set up in July 2017. The caesarean delivery in the hospital costs Rs 12,000 as against Rs 7,000 for a normal delivery of a woman.

Kiran Hospital administrator Dr Snehal Dungrani said, "Of the six births that take place in the hospital daily, half of them happen to be girls. Since July 2017, we had 347 cases where girls were first daughter and 144 cases where they were second daughter."

"The girl child, who is given the bond, on turning 21 will get Rs 1 lakh in her bank account. This is Samast Patidar Aarogya Trust's way to reaffirm its support to the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign of the government. We would regularly keep paying the premium towards the bond and hope to continue the scheme until further announcement," Dr Dungrani said.

Patidar community leader Mathur Savani said, "When we started the scheme in 2003, the male-female ratio in Patidar community was skewed. It was 1,000:750 at some places in the state. We continuously campaigned to save the girl child, which helped improve the ratio to 1,000:910 in the community. But, we need to do more to bring parity. The scheme by Kiran Hospital seeks to create awareness among people about 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and it would help the community too."