NEW DELHI: Disturbed over the declining sex ratio across the country, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has called for more stringent implementation of the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.

Speaking to reporters on the World Health Day, Commission chairperson Girija Vyas said the NCW had resolved to mount an "offensive" against the misuse of medical and genetic technology for sex selection and elimination of female foetus.

Barring Kerala, Sikkim, Tripura and Meghalaya, all other States had shown a decline in the sex ratio between 1991 and 2001.

Already, there are reports of sale of girls from the poorer States to those where the sex ratio is extremely low. These girls are bought on the pretext of marriage but abandoned after they bear children. Trafficking in young girls within the States has also increased.

The sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 all over the country has come down from 976 in 1961 to 927 to 2001. Of the 591 districts, 16 have a sex ratio of less than 800, in 33 districts it is between 800 and 849, and it is between 850 and 899 in 72 districts. It is between 900-949 in 213 districts, between 950-999 in 245 districts and 1,000-1,049 in only 21 districts.

Apart from the misuse of technology for sex determination, the latest trend witnessed is the use of mobile vans for sex determination and medical termination of female foetus.

There is no figure available on the number of such mobile vans or the unregistered clinics that stealthily carry out sex determination tests. From 1988 to 2003, as many 37,836 ultrasound machines were sold in the country and a few would have been imported also.

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