Panel in limbo as sex ratio continues to drop

Advisory has not met for nearly 18 months

April 22, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:46 am IST - Bengaluru:

Despite the State struggling to arrest a steady decline in the child sex ratio — from 946 in 2001 Census to 943 in 2011 — the State Advisory Committee, which plays a key role in preventing sex determination and female foeticide, has not even met for nearly a year-and-a-half.

Adding to this, the reconstitution of the district-level Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC and PNDT) advisory committees, whose term ended in 2011 and subsequent years, is yet to happen.

The net result seems to be the ineffective implementation of the PC and PNDT (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, by the State government.

The State Health and Family Welfare Department, the nodal agency for implementing the Act, is sitting on the formation of these committees.

Official sources in the department said the process was delayed because of political interference. “The file pertaining to the formation of the new State committee is awaiting Chief Minister’s clearance,” sources said.

The delay, however, has not gone down well with the former members of the erstwhile committee. “It is unfortunate that the government is not serious about such an important issue,” a former member said.

Recently, a former member of the Bangalore Urban District PC and PNDT Advisory Committee received a call from a K.R. Puram resident about a diagnostic centre conducting sex determination tests. “I was helpless and informed the caller that our committee did not have the powers to act now as our term had ended in 2011,” said Vasundhara Bhupathi, the member.

The Bangalore Urban District Advisory committee was dissolved in 2011 after a three-year term. Similarly, the committees in all districts ceased to exist in the following years after their term ended. Sources said the reconstitution of the committees has been delayed as the district in-charge Ministers wanted to nominate members of their choice.

In its 27th report, the Women and Child Welfare committee of the State legislature also noted that the implementation of the Act has been found to be ineffective in the State.

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