PM Modi makes Patidars pledge not to kill daughters in womb

AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made a sea of Patidars pledge not to kill the girl child in the womb. Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of Vishwa Umiya Dham — a Rs 1,000 crore socio-religious complex being built by Patidars in Ahmedabad — Modi chided the Patidars over the prevalence of female foeticide.

“You offer prayers to Ma Umiya and then kill the girl child…this is not acceptable,” Modi said. “I have grown up amid you and I have the right to get upset with you. I am disappointed with the skewed sex ratio in Unjha.” Despite being an industrially developed state, Gujarat’s sex ratio is 890 girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group, according to Census 2011. The state’s bias against the girl child was first exposed by Census 2001 figures, which showed the ratio to be 883 girls per 1,000 boys. Unjha, a Patidar-dominated taluka in Mehsana district of North Gujarat, had recorded one of the lowest sex ratios — 742 girls per 1,000 boys in Census 2001. After a decade of concerted “beti bachao” efforts, the ratio rose to 810-1,000 when Census 2011 was completed.

Modi’s hometown Vadnagar falls in Mehsana district. The district’s sex ratio was 813-1,000 in 2001. The girls’ number improved only marginally to 841 in 2011. “I want a pledge from you while we are at the feet of Ma Umiya,” Modi told the crowd. “I want you to repeat after me that even mistakenly we will not kill the female child henceforth. And I want the doctors of the Patidar community never to kill fetuses.”

Patidar leaders said it was significant that Modi administered the “save the girl child” pledge. “The sex ratio is highly skewed in the Patidar community. We at Vishwa Umiya Dham are committed to taking up this cause,” said C K Patel, the chief convener of Vishwa Umiya Dham.