To step up efforts to curb sex determination and female foeticide, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has decided to set up an expert group to identify the newer methods being used for gender determination that bypass the existing regulation of ultra sound machines.
Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Monday while addressing members of the reconstituted Central Supervisory Board, the highest body overseeing the implementation of the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PC&PNDTAct), here said: “While misuse of ultra sound machines is still prevalent because it is cheap, newer medical technologies are increasingly being used in the name of ‘genetic testing’.”
The Minister remarked that he is disturbed by the introduction of new technologies, some of which are non-invasive, for the purpose of determining the gender of the foetus. The use of simple blood tests that determine the sex of the foetus represents a new dimension to gender-specific foeticide, he said. At IVF-ART clinics couples are given the option of accepting or rejecting a foetus depending on the sex, he added.
Taking cognisance of the rules being flouted, the Minister has decided to form an expert group to identify the approaches and formulate responses in the form of an Amendment to the Act.
“Despite having the PC&PNDT Act for 20 years, the sex ratio has now closed in favour of the girl child. The male to female child ratio was 964 to 1000 in 1971, but Census 2011 has shown it to have fallen to 918,” Dr. Harsh Vardhan said.
The Minister said the Centre will write to all Chief Ministers on the need for ensuring better functioning of State and district appropriate committees empowered under the PC&PNDT Act to supervise and book offenders. There is also need to involve Members of Parliament to keep a check on the implementation of the committees in their constituencies, he said.
“It is clear that the focus on the providers of sex selection services has not worked through 20 years. We need to go into the root cause and build up a social movement,” he pointed out.
The meeting was co-chaired by Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development who pointed out that it is mainly the upper middle and rich classes who opt for sex selection methods. Ms. Gandhi said several amendments are necessary in the PS&PNDT Act to make it more effective.
