At a time when we are so used to hearing stories of female babies being abandoned at birth or families unhappy with the birth of a female child as they were expecting a male ‘heir’, there comes a refreshing piece of news from the nation’s capital – of the birth of a girl child being celebrated with a special programme called ‘Nanhi Pari’!
District Magistrate Cheshta Yadav of North West Delhi launched this programme that aims to provide complete services from birth certificate to Aadhar card of the newborn girl child at one stop.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, DM Cheshta Yadav shared details about the programme and its main objectives.
NANHI PARI
‘Nanhi Pari’ is largely based on three objectives. The first objective is to celebrate the birth of the girl child. Second, the administration wants to provide a one-stop solution to the entire process of birth and the procedures thereafter. Third, promotion of institutional delivery.
The programme would ensure that parents who give birth to their child in government hospitals do not have to run around for official documents of their newborn.
“We have kept four services in this project – Aadhar card enrollment, birth certificate of the child before discharge, opening a bank account for the child, a souvenir to the parents in which there will be a footprint of the child and a photograph of the mother with the baby,” informed DM Yadav.
The main target is, however, promotion of institutional delivery. According to the DM, through this programme, people will come to know that with a government hospital delivery, they can avail such benefits.
PARTNERSHIP WITH BANK
The team has partnered with the Punjab National Bank for the opening of bank account of the girl child. The DM says that additionally, they are also aiming to get registration for special schemes for the girl child, such as the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a central government initiative. The bank officials collect the required documents and stay in touch with the parents for processing all the work.
PROJECT EXPANSION
DM Yadav launched the project in June at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri. As of now, services have started in other government hospitals in the North West district of Delhi, like Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital, Rohini, Bhagvan Mahvir Hospital and Deep Chand Bandhu hospital in Ashok Vihar.
This initiative will help in cutting down the excessive burden which the parents carry as soon as a baby is born, the officer said. Parents can return to the hospital and avail these services even after the mother and child are discharged, she added.
NANHI PARI KIOSK
DM Yadav and her team have also taken space near the gynaecology wards of government hospitals to set up Nanhi Pari kiosks, with due permission from the hospital authorities.
“Our team moves around the ward with a tab and do the Aadhar enrollment of the child there itself,” she informed.
Till now, this project is mostly getting popularized through word-of-mouth publicity but attempts are on to popularize it through the media as well.
FOR THE BOY CHILD
Happy with the responses the programme is getting, the officer now hopes to start a similar programme for the boy child, as well. She let it known that they started off with the girl child in order to send out a strong positive message. A total of 150 people have taken the benefit of the programme in last 20 days.
Appealing to people to avail the benefits, DM Yadav said, “As district administration, we can only facilitate things, but, ultimately, parents have to come forward and enroll in these schemes.”
