Sex determination: Act strongly to kill this ill

Contrary to perception, it is not rural, illiterate folk who are resorting to sex determination tests as much as educated, urban folk. The reason for this is simple: more unscrupulous sonography clinics and medical practitioners engaged in the malpractice of sex determination tests are present in cities and towns than in villages and taluka headquarters.

This observation is supported by various studies, including one carried out recently by students from colleges in Pune, Baramati, Shirur and Ahmednagar and associated with the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre of the University of Pune. This study, which covered middle-class and working-class localities, has thrown further light on the practice of illegal sex determination tests and female foeticide. It revealed that the child sex ratio is worse among the better off and educated families. The number of girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group in Pune, for instance, revealed a low of 743, though the official figure stands at 880. As against the national average of 914, Maharashtra had a poor child sex ratio of 883. There were just 685 girls for every 1,000 boys in the better off families as against 802 girls in working-class households.

In a six-month period, 16 cases were registered in Pune against doctors for flouting the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 2003. Last year, there were multiple convictions with errant doctors being jailed for the first time. Only strict enforcement of the law with stiff sentences on guilty doctors can help check female foeticide.