To curtail the ongoing trend of female foeticide with the help of diagnostic and ultra sound centers, District Collector Niranjan Nayak on Friday directed the special task force to identify illegal ultrasound and patho lab centers operating in the district and directed the CDMO to take action by sealing the unauthorized patho labs and ultra sound centers.
According to official sources, the District Collector attending in the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) meeting at Kendrapada directed the CDMO to conduct raids at different ultra sound centers with the help of special task force.
According to CDMO Shantilata Sharma, the new and worrying aspect of this discrimination is the use of technology to curtail the life chances of a girl child even before its birth. The practice of sex selective abortions or female foeticide has gained during the late 90s in the coastal district, as per the report.
The sex of the foetus is identified through either amniocentesis or ultrasonography and abortions are carried out either as an ‘attached service’ or independently. Compared to female infanticide, this became a more acceptable mode of disposing of the unwanted girl child. “More than hundred patho labs and ultra sound centers were operating illegally in the district. The allegation has come to my notice recently.
To identify all the illegal ultra sound centers and patho labs and to seal these illegal centers, I have directed the task force led by CDMO of Kendrapada to conduct raid in different patho lab centers,” stated Nayak. As per the reports of the District Health Department, only nine out of nearly 100 patho labs, which were functioning in the district, obtained necessary permission from the health department.
Similarly, three private clinics got authorisation from the Health department to install ultrasound in the district, whereas about 30 other nursing homes and clinics have allegedly set up ultrasound machines to testthe gender of the child and also dispose of the unwanted ones.
As per a report, more than 10 million girl children vanished from their mothers’ wombs within 25 years in India. Ultrasound system reached every corner in India to determine the sex of the child in the womb. Sex selection techniques lead to social unrest. Abdominal ultrasound imaging can tell the sex of a foetus with 90 per cent accuracy at 14 weeks, said CDMO Sharma.