The aim of the walk was to create awareness about the importance of girl child. “It was a walk for India’s missing girls,” said Dr Neelam Sodhi, convenor of DOSST.
The doctors along with nursing students of various hospitals were seen walking from DMCH, CMCH, Apollo hospital, Durga Mata Mandir and a few more areas along with pink balloons and dholis. The converging point of all the groups was at Sarabha Nagar market.
The participants had painted their faces and were carrying placards with slogans like “save girls for a safe world”, “ladaka ladaki ek samaan”, “beta shaan aur beti abhimaan”. The doctors were seen shouting slogans such as “meri beti, meri shaan; desh ki dhadkan, desh ki shaan”, and “aao iski jaan bachayein, apne desh ki shaan badhayein”.
Dr Sodhi said, “We started DOSST with about 25 active members who are gynaecologists, radiologists - the doctors directly concerned with selective sex determination and termination (of pregnancies). We doctors joined hands to set an example that doctors are committed against pre-natal sex determination and sex-selected abortions.”
The members of DOSST also conduct health workshops in government schools under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM ) programme in which the students are made aware of a number of issues apart from female foeticide.
During the awareness walk, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari was the chief guest. Apart from civil surgeon Dr Subash Batta, core committee members Dr Vidhu Moudgil, Dr Vineet Kaur, Vinie Thapar, Dr Ajay Aggarwal, Dr Naveen Pariera, Dr Pushpinder Singh, Dr Indu Sood, Dr Poonam Rastogi, Dr Ginny Gupta, Dr Ankhvir Gill, Dr A S Rattan, Dr Deepak Bansal, Dr M S Chawla, Dr Manu Singla and Dr Rajiv Garg were also present.
The other participants were from Guru Teg Bahadur S C Hospital, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Oswal Hospital, Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Institute of Nursing Education, Mata Saraswati Institute of Nursing Education, and Ludhiana Paediatric Association.