Karnataka - Mangalore   

`Strict enforcement of law preventing foeticide'

Special Correspondent

There are 1,022 women for every 1,000 men in Dakshina Kannada

A CRUCIAL MESSAGE: Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat president Mamatha D.S. Gatti at the World Population Day function in Mangalore on Tuesday.

MANGALORE: The Dakshina Kannada district has all the reasons to smile on the World Population Day because it is one of the two regions in the country to have a healthy sex ratio.

The Dakshina Kannada district has 1,022 women for every 1,000 men and is second after Kerala, which has 1,132 women for every 1,000 men. The national average is 972 women for every 1,000 men and Karnataka's figures are 963 per 1,000 men.

Deputy Commissioner Maheshwara Rao told The Hindu that the thrust would be not just on preventing female foeticide, but also to protect women. The Prenatal Sex Determination Test (PNDT) Act had been enforced strictly in the district.

According to District Health Officer Jagannath all the ultra sound scanning centres in the city had been given strict instructions not to reveal the sex of the foetus. Every hospital or diagnostic centre that wanted to have an ultra sound scanning machine should take a no-objection certificate from the Health Department, which helped the department monitor scanning jobs.

There were 111 scanning machines in the district and all of them had been registered with the department, he said.

PNDT Committee Chairman Ramdas Chadaga said the critical importance of reproductive health to achieve international development goals was affirmed at the highest level at the 2005 World Summit. Reproductive health was a human right. Poor reproductive health was the leading cause of death and illness in women of childbearing age. About 350 million couples lacked the ability to plan their families or space their children.

Dr. Chadaga said women could play a key role in sustainable development.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rs. 7.39 crore for repair of roads
Satellite model presented to Dharmasthala temple
`Strict enforcement of law preventing foeticide'
ABVP activists block road
Bio-park named after Shivarama Karanth
Three rescued
In Mangalore Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu