Delhi govt plans to reward informers on illegal sex tests

doctor in northwest Delhi has been arrested for conducting sex-determination tests in a raid done using a decoy from Haryana.

There have been 15 successful raids over the past two years when Delhi’s Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) cell started using decoys to raid and seal centres doing illegal sex-determination tests that lead to couples aborting unborn girls.

As in all the past successful raids, the information and the pregnant woman who was used as a decoy came from Haryana.

“Like Haryana , we are trying to establish our own informerreward scheme so that people have an incentive to inform us about any centre performing sex-selection and pregnant women are willing to take the risk of being decoys,” said Dr Satyajit Kumar, Delhi’s state programme officer, PC-PNDT.

Delhi’s final draft proposal, scheduled to be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting, offers R 2 lakh to people with information on unregistered ultrasound centres and R 50,000 each to the informer and the decoy for a successful raid against sex determination.

“If this happens, we will be able to receive information locally and conduct raids in all parts of Delhi with our team,” said Dr Kumar.

In the most recent case, PC-PNDT cell planned the raid after a tip-off from the PC-PNDT cell from Haryana, which sent a pregnant woman as a decoy with R 40,000 in marked currency. In the six-hour operation, the team followed the woman using GPS. The woman was first asked to meet a mediator in Rohini and pay R 6,000, from there she was taken on a long car journey to a village. When she paid around R 22,000 to a middleman there, she was told that she had to go back to a hospital in Northwest Delhi for the ultrasound.

At the hospital, she paid R 2,000 to the doctor’s assistant and R 10,000 to the doctor. As soon as she paid the sum, she was taken in for an ultrasound without filling the mandatory forms that have to be filled before doing an ultrasound of a pregnant woman.

“As soon as the doctor performed the ultrasound, the team barged into the room. We found R 18,000 in pre-matched currency in the doctor’s office,” said Dr Kumar.

Documents in the doctor’s office showed that the records of the ultrasounds done had not been filled in over a month.

A case has been registered against two mediators, the doctor’s assistant and the doctor and an ultrasound machine ha been sealed.

Like Haryana , we are trying to establish our own informerreward scheme so that people have an incentive to inform us about any centre performing sexselection test. Women are ready to play decoy customers. DR SATYAJIT KUMAR, Delhi state programme officer, PC-PNDT