Foeticide may carry life term

Union health minister endorses stringent punishment for female foeticide and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques, reports Aloke Tikku.

Foeticide could soon be punished with life imprisonment.

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Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the government intended to make penalties for violations of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, more stringent.

Crying shame

2,000 unborn girls aborted illegally every day, according to UN estimates
10 million girls killed by parents either before or immediately after birth in last 20 years, says government
Dubious distinction
Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi have most skewed sex ratios in country, with less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to 2001 Census
Reason
Female foeticide on rise due to easy availability of ultrasonography and amniocentesis, which help determine gender of foetus
Sons are seen as breadwinners who’ll look after their parents and carry on the family name; daughters are financial liabilities
Implications
Rise in violence against women
Practices like polyandry, where several men, often brothers, share the same wife
Trafficking of girls to states like Haryana and Punjab

The proposal comes in the backdrop of several government plans to provide incentives to families that do not indulge in infanticide and foeticide. One of them, a reward of Rs 5,000 to families where a girl child is born, will be launched early next year.

States like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh have witnessed a steady decline of the sex ratio, a trend that indicates the existence of foeticide. “We have given Rs 5 lakh to each MP from these six states for campaigns on the declining sex ratio,” Ramadoss said.

Ramadoss said the central supervisory board for implementation of the PNDT Act is slated to meet next week. “Let me inform that there will not only be fine, but even life imprisonment too,” he said.

The minister said there were 403 pending cases and 132 ultrasound machines have been seized and sealed under this law. In this year, about 125 cases have been reported and there have been four convictions.

Ramadoss, however, acknowledged that the conviction rate was low as foeticide is a clandestine affair.

The minister, however, made clear that there was no way he could ban the existing 32,000 ultrasound machines in this country that also saved many lives. He was responding to a suggestion made by Gandhian, Nirmala Deshpande, who said former prime minister Indira Gandhi had toyed with the idea of banning the machines.

“I am afraid that testing the sex of an embryo creates problems for us. I am thinking of banning it. But, how long can we ban this. I am really disturbed about this and this may, in future, create serious problems,” Deshpande quoted Indira Gandhi as saying.