The crime of female foeticide is thriving in this region with the authorities failing to put effective check on this practice.
Hari Singh (name changed) a chemist in the Kundeshwari area of the city got his wife’s ultrasound done at a nursing home near Vijaynagar area on Nov 12, 2013 for knowing the sex of his to be born third child. After diagnosed of having a female foetus it was aborted immediately. Mohit Kumar (name changed) an auto rickshaw driver got the sex of his unborn child determined in an ultrasound center near civil court on Jaspur Khurd Road. Declared a female foetus probably by an untrained ultrasound technician, the foetus was aborted.
later it turned out to be that of a male to the dismay of the parents. As per the people involved in this illegal business, the price tag for the said illegal practice ranges anywhere between Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 depending on the stage of foetal development and paying capacity of the persons seeking this banned facility. However the erring ultrasound clinics of the city, some of which are operating in a single room area and are run by untrained hands for these tests, generate huge profits. It may be mentioned here that, as per the PNDT (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act of 1994, enforced from 1996 “no medical center including genetic counseling centers, genetic labs and clinics, government hospitals, nursing homes can use PNDT mechanism including ultrasonography for sex determination test.”
Despite the persons responsible in the 100 odd public as well as private ultrasound centers here facing the possibility of paying a fine of Rs 1,00,00 or three to five year jail term under section 22 of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, identifying the determination of foetal sex as a ‘ cognisable, non–bailable and non – compoundable offence ’, the same illegal practice is thriving in this city with the authorities failing to take effective action. In spite of all official curbs imposed on these ultrasound clinic owners and regular checks being carried out to prevent the same, the erring ultrasound owners and technicians seem to have devised their own strategies to avoid official action.