Union health ministry orders removal of 4,000 sex-determination videos on YouTube

Mumbai: The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday sent notices to YouTubers who had uploaded videos on prenatal sex-determination, ordering them to remove these within 36 hours

Mumbai: The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday sent notices to YouTubers who had uploaded videos on prenatal sex-determination, ordering them to remove these within 36 hours. The approximately 4,000 URLs listed by the ministry instruct viewers on how to determine the sex of a foetus by looking at various pregnancy reports.

HT Image

Prenatal sex-determination is banned in India under the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act), and diagnostic centres are stringently regulated under it. The Act was legislated with a view to stopping female foeticide and arresting the declining sex ratio in India.

Confirming the development, undersecretary P V Mohandas said that the ministry monitored social media routinely for objectionable content. “When these videos were brought to our notice, we identified and enlisted the offending channels first,” he said. “On Tuesday, we sent them notices to remove the content, also informing them that this was a punishable offence.”

Mohandas added that Google had also been requested to remove the content from its website. “Any person who comes across content violating the PCPNDT Act can report it to the nodal authorities in their own state or to the ministry on the email address pndtmohfw@gmail.com,” he said.

“Initially I thought these were videos uploaded by YouTubers from other countries but shockingly, they were from India,” said Dr Aggarwal. “I was surprised to see that the video I chanced upon had 0.7 million views. The law on prenatal sex determination is very stringent, and there should be strict monitoring on this issue. All videos, including the ones uploaded by users outside of India, should be banned for viewing in India.”

When HT reporters visited YouTube and keyed in specific keywords, there were thousands of such videos uploaded by Indians. These channels were owned by ‘Mommy vlogggers’, Lifestyle vloggers, health vloggers and nursing staff at hospitals. Some YouTubers also claimed that they were doctors, educating people on pregnancy.

Dr Hrishikesh Pai, president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), said, “The law of our country even bans advertising of sex-determination services. I am surprised to know that this information is freely available on social media.”

Pai explained that in the last ten years, it was the stringent implementation of the PCPNDT Act that had helped India achieve a better sex ratio. “All ultrasound machines have to be registered, and doctors have to be very thorough in keeping records of every scan taken,” he said. “Any discrepancy in the records can land a medical professional in serious trouble. A similar rigour needs to be applied to social media, and videos of this kind must be immediately taken off public platforms.”