The child sex ratio (for ages 0 to 6) in the Union Territory has fallen from 967 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2001, to 965 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011.
In order to improve this ratio, the health officials from the Union Territory will be meeting health and family welfare officials from the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
According to a study conducted by the Pondicherry University, the people from the Union Territory visit places in Tamil Nadu in order to have sex-selective abortions. "It is for this reason that a meeting with the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act enforcement officials from neighbouring States is necessary," said V.V. Rao, Deputy Director of Family Welfare.
The issue was brought up before Chief Minister N. Rangasamy at the Union Territory Supervisory Board Meeting on Monday and the process to fix the meetings will start soon, he said.
According to sources, the amendments made to the PCPNDT Act were also discussed. In this regard, the registration fees for new ultrasound centres would be increased from Rs. 4000 to Rs. 10,000. The same would apply for new genetic clinics as well. The Central Supervisory Board, however, had fixed the rates at Rs. 25,000 for new ultrasound centres and Rs. 35,000 for new genetic clinics. The rates in the Union Territory may be increased in the coming years.
At present, there are a total of 79 ultrasound and genetic clinics in the Union Territory.
Another change that would be made was that doctors who had completed their MBBS and six months of post graduation in radiology would be allowed to practice as a radiologist.
Another point that was discussed was the rule that one radiologist should not be allowed to be registered with more than two clinics. This, however, was shot down since there was a dearth of radiologists in the UT.
