Governments lack concern for female child: SC

"The government has become sloppy. Central and State governments are supposed to organise camps. They don’t. Then what awareness can you spread?"

September 17, 2014 02:26 am | Updated April 21, 2016 11:36 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

Pulling up the Union and State governments for the “sloppy” implementation of the pre-natal sex determination law despite its existence for the past 20 years, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N.V. Ramana on Tuesday said the approach reflects “lack of concern for the female child.”

The observations came on an application filed on August 2013 by Sabu Mathew George, a member of the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) set up under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act of 1994, alleging that pre-natal sex determination continues to be done by doctors, hand-in-glove with conniving authorities. Dr. George charged that female foeticide continued unchallenged despite a March 2013 judgment by the Supreme Court. The court had at the time observed that eliminating female foetuses after pre-natal diagnostic tests had pushed the female child ratio down nationwide.

“The government has become sloppy. Central and State governments are supposed to organise camps. They don’t. Then what awareness can you spread?” Justice Misra asked Additional Solicitor-General Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the Union government.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.