The Hindu : Ultrasound machines blamed for poor sex ratio

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

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Other States - Rajasthan

Ultrasound machines blamed for poor sex ratio

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, FEB. 18. An expert study has held widespread misuse of ultrasound machines for sex determination responsible for the sharp increase in the adverse sex ratio in the country during the past decade. The emergence and spread of sex determination clinics are only an early warning signal for serious distortion in sex ratio in the coming decade, it warns.

The countrywide study conducted by Sabu M. George, a sex ratio expert at the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Delhi, indicates that the ultrasound machines are luring even the tribal population in the States like Rajasthan. A steep decline of over 75 points has been reported during a period from 1991-2001 in urban areas of Sriganganagar, Banswara and Sirohi in Rajasthan.

"Foetal sex determination with the use of ultrasound machines has become such a common practice in India today that in Delhi nearly one in seven female foetuses are aborted at present,'' Dr. George said here talking to newspersons. Indirect estimates revealed that nearly one in six female foetuses in urban Sriganganagar and one in 11 in urban Jaipur were being eliminated after sex determination, he pointed out.

The Census 2001 figures show a decline of male female sex ratio in urban Rajasthan from 909 (909 females against 1000 males) in 1991 to 886 in 2001. In urban Sriganganagar adjoining Punjab it plummeted to below 800. "There had been a drastic drop in child sex ratios(0 to 6 years) in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Maharashtra as compared to the 1991 Census and the role of machines is too conspicuous,'' Dr.George observed.

"The southern States such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh also have shown a decline in child sex ratios. The drop is less as the sex determination clinics emerged in these States a decade later,'' Dr.George said. The incidence of abortion of the female foetus was more in Rajasthan districts adjoining Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat like in the case of districts in Karnataka adjoining Maharashtra, it was pointed out.

This was because the machines were first to appear in States like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra and the population of the border areas of States adjoining them went there to get the tests done.

"Tribals from Sirohi and Banswara in Rajasthan go to Gujarat to undergo the tests though the State itself has some 800 registered ultrasound machines,'' Dr.George observed. It was on a public interest petition filed by him along with MASUM Pune and CEHAT, Mumbai, that the Supreme Court in 2001 had directed the States to ensure strict implementation of the PNDT (Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques-Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.

"Even now the machines are more misused than they are used,'' Dr.George noted. This was due to the widespread absence of medical ethics and the continuing laxity by the State Governments in the implementation of the rules. "The prevailing sentiments in rural areas continue to be anti-women. The population policies too add on to the situation as the small family norm generally goes against the girl child even at the foetal state,'' he argued.

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