The Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) demand to decriminalise the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act has drawn flak from the girl child activists who argued that doctors must be adequately punished for foeticide.
Dr Satish Agnihotri, a retired bureaucrat, emphasised that “none other than the Prime Minister himself has appealed against this malpractice. It is high time the young generation of doctors addresses this issue seriously and stop discrimination against the unborn girl child. Otherwise, the erosion of ethics among the medical professionals will assume menacing proportions.”
Talking to reporters here, Dr Neelam Singh, lucknow-based gynecologist said that in recent years, as about hundred doctors are being convicted under PC-PNDT Act, medical associations have made determined efforts to undermine this law which prohibits determination of foetal sex for non-medical reasons.
“last year the association of radiologists, IRIA, organised a nation-wide strike. Hundreds of their members protested and there were even calls to stop filling F forms. Now, the IMA is leading its doctors to seek weakening the PC-PNDT law by organising demonstration ‘Delhi Chalo’ Tuesday,” said Dr Singh.
The IMA has been claiming that doctors are being penalised for clerical errors under the Act, if that is so, well known girl child activist Dr Sabu M George asked, where are the girls going before they are born.
“The sex ratios at birth have consistently declined from 909 girls per thousand births to 900 over the years 2011 to 2015. Approximate number of missing girls is about 6 lakh girls every year due to at least 18 lakh medical crimes,” he added.
Sudha Sundaraman, ex-president of AIDWA, Smita Khanijow, Member State Supervisory Board, PC-PNDT, Delhi and Prof Bijayalaxmi Nanda from Delhi University echoed similar views seeking stringent laws to save the girl child.