Haryana tops list of states revealing sex of foetus

THE UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES ARE BASED ON QUARTERLY REPORT RECEIVED FROM STATES AND UTS

NEW DELHI : A total of 449 people have been convicted up to March this year from across the country for violations under the PreConception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, that is enacted to stop female foeticide.

Haryana is worse as far as revealing the sex of foetus is concerned, with 158 of the 387 cases filed against violators under this category being from this state alone. Rajasthan is close second with 112 cases registered against the violators.

The Union health ministry has released figures based on the quarterly progress report received from states/UTs, which shows a jump of 15% from previous year’s 388 overall convictions in the corresponding period. The Act prohibits sex-selection or disclosure of the sex of the foetus “by words, signs or in any other manner”, which is a punishable offence. It also prohibits sale of “any ultrasound machine or imaging machine or scanner or any other equipment capable of detecting sex of foetus” to persons, laboratories, clinics, etc. not registered under the Act.

The Act was enacted for prevention of misuse of pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques for sex determination. Experts say about 5% of all ultrasound scans are pregnancyrelated.

Female infanticide is a worldwide phenomenon, with an estimated 1.5 million female foetuses getting aborted each year. According to a recent report from the Niti Aayog, India’s sex ratio at birth, which is the number of girls born for every 1,000 boys, dropped from 906 in 20122014 to 900 in 2013-2015, and aborting female foetuses is a major contributing factor for the huge disparity.

“The report is based on inspections conducted on a regular basis by individual states and UTs. The disclosure of figures publicly is to comply with a central information commission order,” said a health ministry official, requesting anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media. “This is the report from the first quarter and we will keep updating as we receive data from the states,” the official added.

Under NHM, the government provides financial support to the states for operating the PNDT cells.