Hyderabad: Though legislation has existed for several years now making it illegal for centres to reveal the sex of the foetus in pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic tests, in rural areas abortions of girl babies continue to take place, seriously unbalancing the sex ratio.
The administration at district level has been alerting ultra sound scanning centres, hospitals and diagnostic centres about the serious consequences of flouting the PCNTDA Act, but hospitals, doctors and medical staff continue to administer the gender test.
A new threat is posed by gangs from neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka who are offering such tests at the doorstep, using mobile cars and vans with portable machines.
Chairperson of the State Women's Commis-sion, Tripurana Venka-taratnam, such portable machines are not allowed under the Act.
“We have noticed that most ultrasound scanning centres in rural areas are not following rules. As per the Act, the scanning centres should ask for prescriptions from doctors for scanning,” she said.
She said agents of the PCPNDT tests are operating like a medical mafia, dominating hospitals and scanning centres.
Mr Ch. Anil, founder of the non-profit Revo-lution Welfare Society, which works with tribals in Adilabad district, said that the racket has links with a network of private hospitals in neighbouring districts.
"Some hospitals are encouraging such tests and abortions in case the results reveal a girl-baby in the womb. These hospitals have good relations with some private hospitals in Karim-nagar district and hospitals have contacts with neighbouring Mah-abubabad, Khammam, Suryapet, and Bhadra-dri districts,” Mr Kumar said.
He said investigating agencies should “break the chain” by taking action against one or two hospitals whenever the media focuses on the issue.
Besides Karimnagar, Adilabad and Mah-bubabad districts, abortions of girl-babies are dangerously high in Nalgonda, Suryapet, Mahbubnagar, Gadwal and Sangareddy districts.
An auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) of Kuruvi mandal in Mahbubabad district said that there was a huge gap between the number of registered pregnant women and the number of deliveries.
“Even well educated women are approaching doctors for abortions if the scan reveals that the foetus is female. A government teacher registered with us last year. She had two girls and an ultrasound scan by a portable machine operated by the agents showed that the third would also be a girl. She got an abortion in a private hospital.”
“We registered 875 pregnancies in Mahbu-babad district. About 175 mothers had abortions for medical reasons and 125 had abortions after seeing the results,” she said.
Code: Lakshmivaram indicates girl child
To get round the law making it illegal to disclose the sex of a foetus in an ultrasound test, some hospitals and diagnostic centres in rural areas in Mah-bubnagar, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Jangaon, Ka-rimnagar, Adilabad and Warangal districts use code words to convey the gender of the baby in the womb.
Telangana State Women's Commission chairperson Tripurana Venkataratnam said, “In some cases that we have identified, doctors from Khammam and Suryapet advised pregnant women to visit again on Laksh-mivaram (Thursday). This indicates goddess Lakshmi, so the baby is a girl. If they advise a visit on Mangalavaram (Tuesday) it’s a boy-child.”
Ultrasound scanning centres and doctors say things like ‘the baby has similarities with her mother’, or ‘you are lucky’, to denote a girl child in the first instance and a boy in the second.
Giving such hints is a crime, Ms Venkatarat-nam said, and so is asking doctors about the gender of the baby in the womb. Govern-ment agencies must create more awareness about the PCPNTD Act in rural areas, especially in tribal areas.
