Let’s register sex of foetus, says Maneka

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, speaking at a media event in Jaipur, suggested the determination of the sex of the foetus from the moment pregnancy is detected.

Striking a startlingly contrarian note on the social evil of prenatal sex determination and resultant female foeticide, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, speaking at a media event in Jaipur, suggested the determination of the sex of the foetus from the moment pregnancy is detected.

“It is really not feasible to go around trying to catch every ultrasound technician for revealing the foetal gender to parents in violation of the PCPNDT Act,” said Ms. Gandhi.

“Rather, why not reverse the strategy? The moment a woman gets pregnant, we should find out the gender of the child, tell the mother about it, and immediately register it in public records. Then we can track which pregnancies are carried to full term.”

“Since the gender is already known, and given the law, families would be compelled to go through with the pregnancy especially when the foetus is female,” Ms. Gandhi said.

Currently India’s strategy to combat declining sex ratios hinges on the PCPNDT Act (the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994), which prohibits ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus. Ms. Gandhi’s suggestion contradicts this law, and the principle of not determining the sex of the foetus.

She was speaking to the media at the All India Conference of Regional Editors in Jaipur, on Monday. Organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the event aims to highlight the achievements of the NDA government in the social and infrastructure sectors by getting the concerned Union Ministers to interact with the media.

In response to a question from The Hindu on the proposed plan to extend paid maternity leave from the current 3 months to 6.5 months, she said, “I was pushing for 7 months maternity leave but the Labour Ministry would only agree to 6.5 months. Everything is cleared from my Ministry. The paperwork is pending with the Labour Ministry. Unless they clear it, I can’t say when this will become a reality.”

On the recent changes in adoption procedures, which have made it a web-based, photograph-driven process, Ms. Gandhi, responding to a query on whether the new system works to the detriment of children with special needs, told The Hindu that it had not affected their rate of adoption.