The Planning Commission's move to relax the ban on sex determination tests (“Should ban on sex determination tests be relaxed?” Page 1, Oct. 8), and give incentives to health workers and families to ensure the safe delivery of girl babies, may bring down female foeticide to some extent but it will not be a permanent solution. As long as the mindset against the girl child remains, any amount of incentives will only fatten the wrong pockets. Only a prolonged, strong educational campaign by the government will have some impact.
Vathsala Jayaraman,
Chennai
By relaxing the ban on sex determination, the government will stir up a hornets' nest. What is a closed chapter is being reopened unnecessarily, giving way to a rampant breach of rules. And all these when we are reluctant to introduce the women's reservation bill in Parliament.
J.J. Vellara,
Kozhikode
The sex determination tests are not carried out by ordinary health workers but by specially-trained personnel.
They may not advise the mothers not to abort. A better incentive would be preference for girls in government subsidies like food rations, cooking gas, housing, medical care, schools, and mid-day meals. This, along with educating the masses on the importance of the girl child, would help reverse the trend.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Michigan, U.S.
