The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State cell to check female foeticide

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Thursday, May 01, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State cell to check female foeticide

Special Correspondent

13 districts with adverse sex ratio in focus

Bangalore tops districts with adverse sex ratio
Special focus on Belgaum for greater violation of PC and PNDT Act

BANGALORE: Karnataka will soon set up an exclusive State-level cell to check the increasing violation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention) Act, 1994, said the Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Madangopal here on Wednesday.

Inaugurating a seminar on the PC and PNDT Act, organised by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Madangopal said the cell will focus on the strict implementation of the Act in 13 districts with adverse sex ratio.

The cell, to be set up under the National Rural Health Mission, will be provided adequate funds. Experts and officials from the cell would frequently visit all the 13 districts. Bangalore, which has several scanning centres, tops the districts with adverse sex ratio and a detailed plan is being charted out to prevent pre-natal diagnosis and female foeticide.

Though Karnataka is a progressive State that has made rapid strides in various fields, it is a shame that the provisions of the PC and PNDT Act are being blatantly violated here, he said, while making out a case for having a sustained campaign against pre-natal diagnosis and female foeticide.

Raid

Mr. Madangopal said the Belgaum district administration recently raided scanning centres in Gokak taluk and found that four of the five centres were blatantly violating the Act. The licences of these centres have been suspended. The Government would accord priority to Belgaum in the implementation of the Act as the district not only has adverse sex ratio but also accounts for large-scale violation of the Act, he said.

Media’s role

Mr. Madangopal said the media has to play a pro-active role in creating awareness on female foeticide and preventing the violations of the Act. It is the information provided by journalists that helped officials in raiding several scanning centres that were conducting sex detection tests. In all the cases, the information given by the media turned out to be true, he said.

Stating that social activism could prevent female foeticide, he said the media, NGOs and social activists should join hands with the officials. International data shows that adverse sex ratio not only changes the population profile of a country but also severely affects its over all development.

M.R. Mohan Raj, Project Director, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said that contrary to public perception, female foeticide was high among urban and educated people. He said there was a proposal to nominate Deputy Commissioners as the appellate authority in regard to the PC and PNDT Act in the districts and Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare at the State-level.

Mr. Madangopal and other senior officials released publicity material brought out by the department to create public awareness on preventing female foeticide and provisions of the PC and PNDT Act.

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