UP replicates Rajasthan model to stop sex tests

Launching of Mukhbir Yojana in Uttar Pradesh will build a positive atmosphere for girls in the northern region.

Uttar Pradesh government replicated Rajasthan’s Mukhbir Yojana (Informer Scheme) on Saturday to stop sex determination and female foeticide.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath launched the scheme at Lucknow. UP officials said a statelevel PCPNDT (pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic technique) cell would be formed soon.

“It is a perfect example of a candle lighting another candle. We are happy that now more girls will be saved,” Naveen Jain, National Health Mission chief and state (Rajasthan) appropriate authority (PCPNDT), said.

Ram Kewal, special secretary of UP’s woman and child development department, was in Jaipur in May. “We have come to Rajasthan to study the good practices and innovative work done in PCPNDT and implement them in our state,” Kewal had said.

The sex ratio in UP was 912 in 2011, which has now declined to 903, he said. “The medical department had conducted three decoy operations in the state (to check sex determination) and they failed.”

Rajasthan’s PCPNDT project director Raghuveer Singh said Mukhbir Yojana was started in the state in 2012 and an informer was given ₹50,000 in three instalments. The amount was increased to ₹1 lakh in 2013, to ₹2 lakh in 2014 and to ₹2.5 lakh from April 1 this year.

Under this scheme, 40% of the award amount is given to the informer, 40% to the pregnant lady (decoy) and the rest 20% to her attendant, he said.

“Launching of Mukhbir Yojana in Uttar Pradesh will build a positive atmosphere for girls in the northern region of India. People will come forward to help administration in nabbing people involved in sex determination, as there is incentive for them,” said social activist Rajan Choudhary who has played a key role in decoy operations in Rajasthan.

“UP is the first state to replicate the Rajasthan model and other states in northern India will also follow it. Soon state-level PCPNDT cell will be formed in UP, which will be another milestone in arresting female foeticide,” Choudhary said.

After the implementation of the PCPNDT Act in 2009, Rajasthan has conducted 75 decoy operations, including 16 interstate ones, of which seven have been done in UP. With help from the Rajasthan PCPNDT team, the first FIR under section 315 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) was lodged in Uttar Pradesh on June 14 and culprits involved in sex determination were sent to jail.