India: This Pune doctor waives off hospital charges for birth of female child

A doctor from Pune is on a mission to save the girl child as part of his 'Beti Bachao Janandolan' (Save Girl Child). As part of the mission and in a bid to encourage parents to bring more girls into this world, he waives the hospital fees for the birth of female children born at his hospital and also gives a rousing welcome to the little ones.

Dr Ganesh Rakh, who runs a maternity-cum-multispeciality hospital in the Hadapsar area of Pune City in Maharashtra, started the "Beti Bachao mission" 11 years ago.

Since then, Dr Rakh claims to have delivered more than 2,400 girl children without charging fees from their parents to create awareness about eliminating gender discrimination.

The hospital organises a grand celebration every time a mother delivers a girl child at his hospital by cutting cakes and showering petals on the parents. He also holds a felicitation for the parents.

"I started this Beti Bachao mission almost 11 years back. In this mission, we waive the entire hospital fee of a patient whenever a girl child is born. We also celebrate the birth of a girl child by cutting cakes, distributing sweets and we also felicitate the parents of girls. In 11 years we have delivered 2,430 baby girls in our hospital and we celebrate the birth of each girl in our hospital," he said.

The doctor also arranges a ride home for the mothers and their infant daughters in a decked-up auto-rickshaw upon their discharge from the hospital.

"We have also received tremendous support from the public, our doctors and social organisations. Till date, more than 400,000 doctors, 13,000 social organisations and 2.5 million volunteers are working with us. They are also giving their own contributions in their own fields, which means they are also doing the same thing in their own clinics and hospitals by celebrating the birth of girl child and by giving concessions in fees," Dr Rakh added.

The noble mission is his way of raising public awareness on gender disparity and eliminating the gender gap.

• India