For the past decade, a hospital in Pune has been delivering girl children for free.

The man behind the initiative, Dr Ganesh Rakh, had witnessed both tears of joy and sadness on the birth of a girl child.

Growing up in a poverty-stricken home, Dr Ganesh would understand why some patients failed to pay him for the procedures in the hospital.

However, a deep study made him realise, that the issue was more about gender than money for many people. He had hired two gynaecologists to deliver and both of them dreaded breaking the news about the birth of a girl child.

The statistics on the gender ratio were deeply depressing for the doctor. So he decided to start a campaign — Mulgi Vachva Abhiyan (Save the Girl Child Campaign), which would deliver girl children free of cost.

At first, the idea was rejected by his friends, family and advisors, citing it to be “loss-making”, but he paid no heed to the negative feedback.

“I have lived in poverty the majority of my life, so I can manage less money even now. What kind of a doctor would I be if I thought about money over saving lives?” he says. Over the years, he has delivered over 2,570 babies for free so far. In the first year of delivering babies for free, he waived fees for 130 babies, which grabbed the attention of doctors and people all around the world.

Soon, many doctors reached out to him to follow his suit. Presently, he has reached out to more than 4,00,000 doctors across the world to inspire them to help poor parents of girl children.

“It is unfair to ask doctors to give free delivery but even if they can do a handful of them, the message is reached. Some doctors give discounts depending on their capacity,” says Dr Ganesh.