New Delhi: Uttarakhand Women and Child Welfare Minister Rekha Arya has been receiving criticism for her latest campaign regarding improving the skewed sex ratio in the state. Clubbing several events such as the end of Kanwar Yatra, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, she urged department workers to take photos of themselves while performing ‘jalabhishek’ at their nearest Shiv temple.
She asked them to take a pledge to ‘improve the state’s skewed sex ratio’ and share the photo on WhatsApp with their respective district officers. Her Twitter video and letter has stirred a huge controversy on social media.
“Let me also take birth, resolution of power in the month of Shiva”
Mr. @narendramodi Freedom by G #Amrit_Festival Resolve taken by me to further strengthen the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign!
Please don’t take away the right of birth from daughters @smritiirani @pushkardhami pic.twitter.com/QCEUmEw4y6— Rekha Arya (@rekhaaryaoffice) July 20, 2022
Last year, Niti Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2020-21 had declared Uttarakhand as the worst-performing state in the country in terms of child sex ratio at birth.
As per the Niti Aayog SDG data, the hill state’s child sex ratio is 840 as compared to the national average of 899. Chhattisgarh has emerged as the best performer in this category where the male-to-female ratio at birth stands at 958 – much above the national average.
Soon after the report was released, the Women and Child Welfare Minister Rekha Arya contested it with the ‘State’s own data’ and claimed that it is actually 949 and not 940.
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