Chandigarh, January 24
The girl child in Punjab might survive foeticide, but once born, she is treated like an unwelcome guest.

In a startling revelation, information gathered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has brought out that the number of girl children taken for treatment to hospitals in Punjab is at least 25 per cent less than the number of boys who are taken to hospitals for both out-patient and in-patient healthcare services.

The information related to the total number of male and female OPD and IPD admissions in various government hospitals across the state from January, 2008, to November, 2009.

The data revealed that in majority of the government hospitals in the state, the number of adult women who visited these hospitals was more than the number of adult men, but when it came to the girl child, the number was far less than boys.

In Faridkot district, for instance, the number of girls who were taken to the OPDs of various civil hospitals is 33 per cent less than the number of boys. In Faridkot Civil Hospital, almost 18,000 boys registered in the OPD in the past two years as compared to only about 11,000 girls. In the same hospital, however, the number of registered women patients was more than double the figure for men.

“The number of adult women reporting at government hospitals is high because they remain at homes while men go off to work. Women are able to use that time to consult doctors. But when it comes to children, they would rather take their son to a hospital than their daughter,” pointed out a doctor serving at the Mohali Civil Hospital.

In Muktsar district, the number of girls brought to the Malout Civil Hospital was about 10,500 while the number of boys was over 17,200. The figures were worse in case of the Muktsar Civil Hospital where the number of girl patients was half the number of boys. In this hospital the number of women patients too was lower than men.

In Hoshiarpur too, the number of girls being taken to hospital remained 27 per cent less than boys. In Tarn Taran the difference was about 20 per cent. From the data that was made available, the bias showed up the least in hospitals in Amritsar district where the difference ran in only hundreds.

Serving government doctors add that in case of adult women, 60 to 70 per cent of the OPD and IPD admissions are related to obstetrics and gynaecological problems. As far as all other ailments are concerned, the adult woman also suffers from the same bias and the number of female patients reporting in OPDs and IPDs of other departments could be only half of men.