The clinics were raided by Central Government Health officials on Monday and found to be violating the norms for conducting sonography on pregnant women.
Eighteen health clinics across the city were raided by Central Government Health officials on Monday and found to be violating the norms for conducting sonography on pregnant women. The National Control and Implementation Committee (NCIC), which oversees the nation-wide implementation of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act — better known as the PNDT Act, ordered action against 38 persons following the raids.
Two ultrasound machines were seized from the clinics of two gynaecologists, Dr Pai Dunghat and Dr Vijay Khambate, both located in Girgaum, in the raids conducted by officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with the State officials and the BMC. The registration of both the doctors has been suspended and they will be booked under the PNDT Act.
“A team of five officials from the NCIC came to Mumbai to review the situation. We decided on a surprise raid in the course of the meeting on Monday afternoon,” revealed Sushma Rath, Director of NCIC. “We found that the clinics had not followed necessary procedures and had not filled the F-forms of the patients,” revealed Varsha Deshpande, an activist, who is also the legal advisor for Satara District Inspection Committee.
According to the PNDT Act, filling out the F-form is mandatory prior to every sonography. This form containing 19 columns requires a doctor to list the reason for conducting the sonography, take consent of the patient, and a declaration that the sonography is being conducted for the wellbeing of the patient and the unborn child and not for sex selection.
“Sex determination tests leading to the abortion of the female child are illegal under the PNDT Act. BMC Executive Health chief Dr Jayaraj Thanekar chose to downplay the raids stating that the clinics were raided due to some administrative lacunae. “The doctors were not caught red-handed revealing the sex of the child, which is a criminal offence,” he said.
There are about 5,591 sonography centers in Maharashtra, 1,000 of which are in Mumbai. “The fact that the random raids revealed offenders indicates that there could be others violating the law in the city. We have asked BMC officials in the D-Ward to investigate the details,” said Deshpande, adding that the NCIC officials are likely to visit Pune next.
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