The Hindu : Drop in juvenile sex ratio causes worry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 01, 2003

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National

Drop in juvenile sex ratio causes worry

By Radha Venkatesan

New Delhi Jan. 31. It is billed as the "booming" Rs. 5 billion-industry. A few thousand "ultrasound" scan machines, a few hundred doctors turned "female foeticide" specialists and an estimated 14 million girls killed even before they were born in the past decade.

With the Rs. 5-20 lakhs ultrasound scan machines, which help find out the sex of the child in the womb, turning into one of the worst killers in the country, the juvenile sex ratio has alarmingly plunged across almost all the States. And, the Census 2001 shows that the female-male ratio of children up to six years (juvenile sex ratio), a clear indicator of the prevalence of female foeticide, had dropped to 927 girls per 1000 boys. "The Census has brought the cat out of the bag. At no point in time has the drop in the juvenile sex ratio been so sharp as in 2001," according to J.V.R Prasada Rao, Secretary, Union Family Welfare Department.

In the "relatively developed" northern State of Punjab, only 793 female children are allowed to be born for every 1000 male children — a drastic drop from the juvenile sex ratio of 875 in the State in 1991. And the neighbouring Haryana too is down the spiral with just 820 female children per 1000 male babies. And the capital Delhi is no better, if not worse. The spawning scan centres in Delhi appear to have ensured a startling drop in the sex ratio from 915 in 1991 to 865 in 2001.

The question before the country now is whether it should wait for the Census 2011 to act, Mr. Rao asked at a two-day workshop organised by the Centre for Advocacy and Research to focus on India's alarming record on female foeticide.

As part of "corrective action", the Centre had directed all the State Governments to send quarterly reports on the enforcement of the recently-amended Pre-Natal Diagnostic Tests (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, he said.

The Supreme Court too had asked the States to set up appropriate authorities at the district and sub-district levels to implement the stringent legislation. "A legal environment has been created to check foeticide and now it is for the States to implement the legislation," Mr. Rao said at the inaugural session of the workshop on Thursday. The State governments should "go beyond" ensuring that the scan centres were registered and initiate action against the erring medical professionals.

The workshop looked at the alarming messages sent out by the Census figures, the responsibility of the States and the medical fraternity to crack the whip on "female foeticide" service-providing scan centres and doctors.

`A serious problem'

According to the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India, J.K. Banthia, the drastic drop in juvenile sex ratio was a "serious and growing problem". While in 1991, there was just one district — Salem in Tamil Nadu — which had less than 849 sex ratio, the 2001 Census showed 32 districts in the "black zones". Besides, 16 districts, including six in Punjab, threw up a sex ratio of less than 800. While the "normal" sex ratio was 105 males for every 100 females, as many as 208 districts showed a negative trend (below 950).

Interestingly, there were 21 districts that showed a positive trend of over 999 females per 1,000 males in the 1991 Census, but they had dwindled to just eight now.

In the urban areas too, the `increased prosperity" had not ensured a better deal for girl babies.

On the contrary, the rise in per capita expenditure in urban localities had meant a fall in juvenile sex ratio, Satish Agnihotri, a UNICEF consultant said.

Presenting the Haryana experience of cracking down on the "erring" medical professionals, the State's chief medical officer, B.S. Dahiya, said the "nexus was quite deep" with the officials receiving threatening calls from some Members of Parliament for raiding nursing homes and scan centres.

For every "illegal" scan carried out, the doctors got a "commission" of Rs. 250 to 500 from the centres. And the cost of abortions ranged between Rs. 2,500 and 5,000.

According to Puneet Bedi, a Delhi-based foetal medicine specialist, an Oxford Medical Review report showed that "routine" ultrasound scans on low-risk pregnant women was not necessary. And the efficacy and safety of such scans was yet to be proved.Interestingly, the ultrasound machines had "missed" to show 64 per cent of abnormalities in the foetuses, he said, making a strong case against "routine" uterine scans.

In India, at least 50 lakh scan tests are being done every year, but only 10 to 20 per cent of the patients belong to the high-risk pregnancy cases.

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