“No matter how many regulations the government comes up with, problems like sex selection, female foeticide will continue to exist in our country unless, of course, the society decides to change,” said Supriya Sule, MP and daughter of Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, during the launch of the programme at a press conference.

Kiran Gera, National president, FLO, highlighted the declining sex ratio among several other startling facts and said, “We all know that sex selection is rampant across all our cities. What we need is collective consciousness to bring about a change.”

The five-year campaign will address issues related to the girl child by conducting a number of programmes across the country including the launch of a short TV series with famous celebrities. Gera said, “We have already finished shooting one episode with Sachin Tendulkar and his daughter. We believe celebrities can be very effectively used to spread awareness about social causes.”

The campaign will also include a musical evening called ‘Phir Wahi Shaam, betiyoon ke naam’ at the Jamshetji Baba hall on January 19. At the event, FLO will also felicitate celebrities who have been supportive parents of their daughters.

For the implementation of the programme, FLO will partner with UNFPA, corporates and the government. In Mumbai, FLO has roped in Supriya Sule, Priya Dutt, Anita Dongre, Yash Chopra, Javed Akhtar, Prasoon Joshi, Sachin Tendulkar and Saira Banu as their resource persons.