Only 143 persons have been convicted till date under PC&PNDT Act that bans sex determination test
While the child sex ratio in the
country is dipping, not much seems to have been done to check sex
determination tests and selective abortions. Data for the whole country
shows only 143 people have been punished for conducting sex
determination tests since the enactment of the Pre-conception and
Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act in 1996. This number
was disclosed by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in a written
reply submitted to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The state that has punished maximum number of offenders under the Act
is Maharashtra with 52 convictions, followed by Haryana (30), Punjab
(26) and Rajasthan (22). States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
Uttarakhand have not punished a single person till date. Gujarat has
convicted only four persons. These are the poor performing states as far
as maintaining healthy sex ratio is concerned.
According to Census 2011, the Child Sex Ratio (0-6 years) has
declined to 919 girls per 1,000 boys against 927 girls per 1,000 boys
recorded in the 2001 Census. This indicates prevalence of pre-natal sex
determination and consequent abortion of female foetuses, the minister
said. Apart from conviction, other actions taken against violators also
do not reflect commitment on part of authorities to bring offenders to
book.
A total of 1,833 cases have been registered so far across the
country, including Rajasthan (562), Maharashtra (527), Punjab (124),
Gujarat (114), Haryana (90) and Uttar Pradesh (42) under the Act.
The number of medical licences of doctors cancelled till date stands
at 65 for the whole country. The maximum number of such cancellations
have taken place in Maharashtra (37), followed by Rajasthan which has
cancelled 21 licences so far.
Maharashtra has seized total 662 ultrasound machine machines
(unregistered/used for illegal sex determination tests) while Rajasthan
has seized 371 machines so far. A total 1,242 machines have been seized
across the country, informed the Union health minister.
The government of India, in order to make the law more stringent, has
amended various provisions of PC&PNDT Rules. These pertain to
sealing, seizure and confiscation of unregistered ultra-sound machines
and punishment for unregistered clinics, regulation of use of portable
ultrasound machine only within the registered premises besides
restricting medical practitioners from conducting ultrasonography at
maximum of two ultrasound clinics within a district.
The government has been exhorting states and Union Territories to strictly implement PC&PNDT Act, the minister said.
