As India registers an appalling statistics of between six million and seven million missing girls in the last decade, health activists suggest that by in the next 10 years, the number would shoot up to one million missing girls a year.
As India registers an appalling statistics of between six million and seven million missing girls in the last decade, health activists suggest that by in the next 10 years, the number would shoot up to one million missing girls a year.
In such a situation, worse than certain sub-Sahara countries, the death of girls as fetuses is endemic. Activists allege that for all the noise the UPA government seems to be making about cracking down on female foeticide, little has been done on the ground.
Addressing a conference on missing girls here on Thursday, a group of activists spoke about the futility of having government-sponsored medical equipment such as “silent observer” or “active tracker” to check illegal abortions in India.
“These new technological interventions brought in by the government to provide evidence against doctors or the parents who have opted for sex selection have not been able to provide the necessary proof for legal purposes,” said Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of the NGO, Centre for Advocacy and Research.
This, however, did not suggest that new technology should not be used to detect medical crimes, she said and added that existing laws ought to be first implemented.
The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Act, 1994 that aims to control illegal abortions is a strong law but its application in the country has been ill, other activists said.
Dr Sabu George, activist and petitioner in the Supreme Court, said, “The girl child help industry always pretends to be doing something when it actually should be really doing a lot more. The government too has been making only noises.”
Having carried out a large number of decoy operations on illegal abortion clinics across Maharashtra, activist Varsha Deshpande feels that supposedly surveillance devices such “silent observer” or “active tracker” could become more effective in curbing female feticide if courts start accepting “online monitoring” of ultrasound machines.
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