The Supreme Court has directed the State governments to provide up-to-date data on steps taken to curb female foeticide. The recent order by a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra came on an application filed on August 6, 2013 by Dr. Sabu Mathew George, a member of the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) set up under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 to inspect medical clinics suspected of indulging in the illegal practice. Conviction under the PCPNDT Act attracts a punishment of three to five years of imprisonment.
Female foeticide continues in India despite the Supreme Court formulating guidelines to curb the menace in March last year. The court had at the time observed that eliminating female foetus after pre-natal diagnostic tests has pushed the female child ratio down nationwide. In his affidavit, Dr. George recounted the active “nexus” he encountered between suspect medical clinics and local authorities.
Inaction“Regrettably, far too often the local authorities do not act. If the clinic gets closed for serious violations, the authorities re-open them in a few days/weeks without filing cases against them for violating the PCPNDT Act,” the affidavit said.
Dr. George criticised the NIMC for conducting “inspections sporadically and being inconsistent in its functioning.”
The affidavit detailed cases of States such as Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen the “sharpest drop in child sex ratio in the past 20 years.” In comparison, it recommended the Kerala online model of transparency in birth registration records.
“The Sevana website maintained by the Kerala government [local self-government department] provides details of all births and other vital statistics. From the website, we get information on the number of boys and girls born. Kerala is the first State to have a centralised database of civil registration records,” the affidavit said.
19% births unregisteredNineteen per cent births remain unregistered in India, the affidavit said. “That five million births in our country are still not registered is indeed a grave violation of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.”
The Bench has posted the case for final hearing on September 16, 2014. The States have to submit their affidavits before that date.
