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INVESTIGATION: SEX SELECTION
Wider Issues Involved
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LEGAL LOOPHOLE
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THE LAW: Ultrasonography, amniocentesis
and other pre-natal diagnostic techniques are meant to detect various
foetal disorders. The PNDT Act bans their use for sex determination.
Clinics with such facilities must be registered.
THE LAXITY: Unregistered clinics
abound. Sex-determination tests are rampant.
THE LOOPHOLE: Pre-conception sex
selection is not specified in the Act. Although it refers to pre-natal
sex determination and "matters connected therewith or incidental
thereto", the Government has so far opted for a narrow interpretation
of the law.
THE RULING: The apex court has
ordered strict implementation of the Act, and advised amendments
"keeping in mind emerging technologies".
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Addressing the larger
issues involved, Ludhiana psychiatrist Dr Rajeev Gupta says, "The
problem of female foeticide cannot be solved unless we tackle the dowry
system and raise the status of women. When neither the perpetrator of
the crime nor women opting for these tests complain, how do you prevent
something happening inside a closed room?" Actually, vigilant state
governments could constantly monitor clinics with ultrasound and other
facilities by routinely sending out decoys as patients; and the Centre
should watch over the states.
But the problem goes beyond even the destruction
of little baby girls. Gupta points to the steady stream of women pouring
into his clinic, traumatised by repeated abortions forced on them by their
husbands and in-laws. Ludhiana's Sunita Shankar, 28, (not her real name)
has been suffering from severe depression for two years. She barely eats
and her ravaged body has been reduced to a skeleton. She has tried to
take her life twice so far. Shankar's problem is that having borne three
daughters, she's been compelled to expel six female foetuses from her
body after sex-determination tests, by a family longing for a son. Kamaljit
Kaur would empathise with her. This mother of two girls has been forced
to undergo five abortions in the quest for a son. The result: fits of
unconsciousness and severe anxiety.
Although Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar
Pradesh and Uttaranchal are described as a Bermuda Triangle where millions
of girls disappear without a trace, other states are far from faultless.
The affidavit filed by the Tamil Nadu Government claimed an impressive
performance before the Supreme Court: 561 registration certificates issued;
action taken against two establishments, one being the Have A Baby Clinic,
also known as the Centre for Infertility Tests and Assisted Reproductive
Technologies (CITART), Madurai, offering sex selection before conception.
"The truth, however," says P. Phavalam of the Campaign Against
Sex Selective Abortion, "is that our complaint is caught in procedural
delays and no concrete action has been taken." Meanwhile, owner P.A.
Chandrasekaran claims he wound up the operation one-and-a-half years ago.
"I opened this place for the good of society. But these ladies' organisations
troubled me so much, I've decided to devote myself to my father's fire
extinguisher business," he says.
The Court has now ordered the Government to
educate the public, and to deal with clinics misusing pre-natal diagnostic
facilities such as ultrasound. The judicial jolt seems to have shaken
the government out of its slumber. Following the ruling, press ads have
been issued on the evils of sex determination. And meetings are being
held at a furious pace, with one in Delhi just this week. Meenakshi Datta
Ghosh, joint secretary (policy) in the Department of Family Welfare at
the Centre, admits that her ministry was already aware of the availability
of pre-conception sex-selection techniques because "we've been reading
about it", but insists that this was not enough for the Government
to act: "The ministry does not have formal knowledge of this fact.
If even one NGO reported that this is going on, with actual locations
of clinics, action would have been taken. But this has not happened. Even
in the court case they've not cited specifics."
"That is not true," shoots back Sabu
M. George, one of the petitioners in the apex court case that brought
the issue into focus. "The writ petition names Sofat and citart."
Besides, when Punjab's director of health services sought a legal clarification
in 1999, the Union Health Ministry's casual response was that the ethical
committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research feels the Act "relates
to testing in a pregnant woman. The question of pre-conceptual sex planning
is not covered..."
So as usual, the authorities are not leading
but being led. Fortunately, the Court seems bent on prodding somnolent
governments. A VHAP petition demanding implementation of the Act is pending
before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. And religious leaders across
India are speaking up against this social malaise. For India's missing
millions-baby girls whose lives have been snuffed out-it's too late. But
for the ones yet to come, it's a rare ray of hope.
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