The President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil has asked the media to handle key social issues like those relating to women, girls and children with sensivity.

Addressing a function organised by a Malayalam daily in New Delhi yesterday, the President said that dowry, child marriage, female foeticide and female infanticide have had a crippling effect on society and that media can create awareness about these problems.

She said, with advances in information and communication technologies over the last two decades, the reach of the media has spread manifold.

There is, therefore, need for the media to handle its influencing capacity with a deep sense of responsibility to the nation.