While acknowledging increasing incidents of sex-selective abortion, the National Commission for Women demands stringent action to end the practice

Acknowledging India's declining sex ratio, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has recommended strengthening the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act by making punishments more stringent and ensuring better implementation. On its part, the health and family welfare ministry suggested the setting up of a taskforce to study the extent of sex-selective abortion and ways to prevent it.

"The commission is in the final stage of drafting the amendments. The draft is being discussed with lawyers and should be finalised by next month...the amendments to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act had already been sent to the government," said NCW chairperson Girija Vyas at the end of an interactive workshop on 'Achieving equality: addressing sex selection' organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Centre for Social Research.

Statistics presented at the workshop showed that around 137.77 lakh girls had 'gone missing' between 1981 and 1991, and that by the next census 23 million males would not find partners.

A study carried out by the Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI), analysing trends in sex ratio at birth (SRB) of hospitalised deliveries in Delhi, revealed that there was an alarmingly high incidence of sex-selective births (abortions) in the national capital.

The study showed that the SRB for third children, when both earlier children are females, is a shocking 219 girls for every 1,000 boys born. This means that a very large proportion of families with two girls makes sure that a third girl is not born.

Misuse of modern medicine and technology are being considered the major reasons for the rampant sex-selective abortions. Mobile ultrasound machines mounted on vans doing the rounds in rural areas, even blood tests that claim to detect the sex of the foetus, are common in districts where numbers of girl children are steadily dropping.

"I know of midwives in Haryana using mobile ultrasound machines; this has had severe consequences, as can be seen from the adverse sex ratio in the state today. This is why a national surveillance taskforce of retired police officers and doctors is being chalked out to carry out sting operations in the mushrooming ultrasound clinics and nursing homes," says Union health secretary, Prasanna Hota.

The proposed taskforce aims to start with four northern states, including Delhi, with the help of non-government organisations and the media.

The NCW and women's groups have also decided to work together to create awareness about sex-selective abortions through campaigns that will go through the 10 worst affected states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

For more information read: No convictions for sex selective abortions in the last 9 years, admits Indian health minister

Source: The Hindu, July 19, 2005
The Pioneer, July 20, 2005