NCW wants stiffer penalty for sex selection

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has recommended strengthening of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act by making punishments more stringent and ensuring its better implementation.

Addressing reporters at the end of an interactive workshop on "Achieving equality: addressing sex selection" organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Centre for Social Research, the NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said the Commission was in the final stage of drafting the amendments. "The draft is being discussed with the lawyers and should be finalised by next month." She said that amendments to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act had already been sent to the government.

On its part, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also suggested setting up a task force with voluntary groups as its members, to study the extent and check female foeticide that had assumed alarming proportions. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Health and Welfare Secretary, P. Hota, said the special task force members could also include retired police officers and physicians. He said new technology like the ultrasound and blood test for sex determination had proved to be a curse as it was being misused to abort female foetuses.

Statistics presented at the workshop showed that about 137.77 lakh girls had gone missing between 1981-1991 and by the next census, 23 million males would not find partners.

The task force, the NCW and the women groups also took a pledge to work for creating awareness against female foeticide through campaigns. The campaign would go through the 10 worst affected States of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Maharashtra and even Tamil Nadu. Ironically while the strategies to check this social evil were being worked out, two women who could make the difference failed to turn up — the Minister of State for Department of Women and Child Development, Kanti Singh, and the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Panabaka Lakshmi. Pointing out that the implementation of the PCPNDT Act had been unsatisfactory, Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research blamed the poor implementation of the Act for the declining sex ratio in the country.