The Hindu : New Delhi News : Who cares for dipping sex-ratio

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Who cares for dipping sex-ratio

By Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI, JAN. 30. While the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, promised activists at a meeting on Saturday to take the problem of "missing girls" seriously, it will take more than just official meetings and firm commitment to save the girls from disappearing. With most of the records sent by ultra-sound clinics -- made mandatory by the law against sex-selection -- gathering dust in cupboards and going unread, the culprits never even get identified, forget being caught.

Despite the child sex-ratio at birth in Delhi slipping to a dismal 819 girls per 1,000 between January and June 2004 according to Municipal Corporation of Delhi figures, the authorities seem complacent and are yet to form a concrete plan. "We get all the records, but since we are so understaffed we never get to read them. They just lie around occupying space, it is a big problem," admitted an official.

However, while his problem was the lack of space in his cupboards, activists believe it is exactly this uncaring attitude that is allowing the steady weeding out of girls.

"The action on the ground is virtually zero. There is never any follow up action by officials after they receive the information from the clinics and genetic laboratories. There is no social audit and the information they get is so precise that it is possible to detect the criminals. As some clinics there are disproportionate number of male babies and so it easy to find out who is to blame. But authorities don't take action as the law allows doctors to police doctors," stated gynaecologist, Puneet Bedi.

And perhaps what illustrates their total lack of concern for the issue is the situation in South Delhi. The district with the lowest sex-ratio at 762 girls per 1,000 boys, it does not have a designated Appropriate Authority for the district-- who monitors the law against sex selection -- for more than a month now. The last Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) resigned following a Central Bureau of Investigation raid on his house.

While there is an acting CDMO who is officiating as the Appropriate Authority at the district level, she has no legal powers yet. Interestingly, the Delhi Appropriate Authority, Abinash Kaur Mehta -- responsible for implementation of the sex-selection law at the State level -- seemed unaware of the situation.

Unfortunately, the situation in the other districts don't seem much different. While there might be an Appropriate Authority appointed, the official does not seem to be too interested in implementing the law against sex selection. Meant to conduct regular surveys in their districts as well as conduct raids, despite the child sex-ratio is dipping alarmingly in Delhi, there has been only one inspection in North Delhi and no surveys till June 2004.

"The last two quarterly reports have not been submitted to the Health Ministry. East Delhi has a number of unregistered clinics but there have been only four inspections and no surveys," according to the report submitted by the activists to the Chief Minister.

Though activists believe that Ms. Dikshit's concern is at least a beginning as she has acknowledged that there is a problem, it might be too late for girls unless the authorities get their act together soon.

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