A steep decline in the number of girls as compared to boys born in India highlights a deepening crisis in the country. Due to a strong cultural preference for sons and the easy availability of technology to determine the sex of a fetus, sex selective abortions have increased radically. Statistics show that in the last hundred years, 35 million females are missing from the population. The 2001 census showed that there are 927 girls for every 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group, nationally. In an effort to combat sex selective abortions, the Government of India promulgated the Prenatal Diagnostic Technique Act in 1994, which has been amended to include pre conception techniques. Now the Act is called the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PCPNDT Act) 1994. However it has not been effectively implemented.

The issue of female feticide was adopted as a priority concern during the WPC Northern and Western Region Meetings during the years 2005 & 2006. WPC aims for the effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act. In consultations with our members and experts working on this issue, a set of recommendations have been prepared which are submitted to Chief Ministers and the Chief Secretaries of the affected states.

The recommendations include audit of the birth registers at hospitals/clinics to monitor sex ratio trends and follow up of the pending legal proceedings against the errant doctors/clinics/hospitals conducting the selective abortions & pre-natal diagnostic test to determine the sex of the unborn child. Some of other recommendations were for organizing awareness generation programmes for various stakeholders at different levels in the state.

WPC memorandum on this issuedelegation has also met the Chief Minister of Haryana and Governor of Rajasthan to submit a.

                  

WPC delegation handing over the memorandum to Sh.Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Hon’ble CM, Haryana
                                   
 
WPC delegation handing over the memorandum to Her Excellency Smt.Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Governor of Rajsthan

In order to steer the agenda forward on this issue, two regional workshops in the month of February 2007 were organized. The workshops were focused on preparing a set of recommendations for each state to ensure effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act and to evolve mechanisms to hold government accountable. The participants were trained in lobbying with state government. Based on the guidelines provided to them, state specific action plans were drawn. It included monitoring the working of Ultrasound clinics by checking registration and cases they take up; introducing rewards and punishments for the enforcing agencies.     

WPC through its members and state conveners has been lobbying the state governments for stringent implementation of the PCPNDT Act and providing adequate resources required to implement it.   

WPC, Punjab State Chapter organized a one-day state-level meeting on “Understanding different approaches/strategies for bettering the sex-ratio in the realm of legal, moral and ethical frame work”. The meet served as a platform for bringing together the varied views and dimensions involved in the issue of female foeticide. The manifold structure of the concern indeed required an analysis, which would cater to all its shades and dynamics at various levels of conception, implementation and operation. The multiple layers involved in the understanding of the issue were dealt with in a versatile manner. It was unanimously concluded to adopt a confluence of legal, moral and ethical approaches to carry out protective and remedial actions towards the cause in future. The WPC Punjab chapter also decided to prepare a memorandum on the issue for submission to the chief minister of the state.  

WPC, Rajasthan State Chapter is vigorously following up with the Government for cancellation of the registration of the ultrasound centers who are not adhering to the norms of the PCPNDT Act. In effect to the complaint lodged by one of our members, registration was cancelled of five clinics in Bhilwara District. It was found that the doctors did not have the required qualification to operate the ultrasound machines as stipulated under the law. The District Collector took serious note of the fact and instructed the CMHO to take stringent action against the offenders.