Theatre groups roped in for anti-femicide campaign in Haryana

Karnal, Apr 9 (UNI) To make the village folks aware about the menance of female foeticide, various theatre groups under the ageis of National School of Drama, Delhi will stage street plays in the villages of Haryana, which are severely hit by the declining sex-ratio.

The programme being run at the behest of the Health and Women and Child Development Departments is targetting 500 villages in Haryana by the end of this month.

Haryana Women and Child Development special secretary S S Prasad told UNI that the programme had been taken up after the successful completion of such programme by the Central government in the Shababad block, worst in sex-ratio in the state.

"The main target of the campaign is the village women as they do not have easy access to the media," Mr Prasad said.

"In their heart of hearts, women know that female foeticide is wrong but various kinds of pressures including that of society, culture and family comes in the way. These plays would teach them not to buckle under pressure and respect a girl child," he said.

"Declining sex-ratio is getting more and more serious as in Haryana men are finding it harder to get a partner for marriage and are bringing them from far off places like Bengal and Nepal," he said.

UNI PS MMS1651