A Window To Perceptive Journalism

Officialdom Has To Move
Beyond Surprise And Shock
Over The Missing Girls

S P Singh

Officialdom seems to be pretty good at being surprised. A relatively small city of Amritsar boasts of nearly 100 clinics engaged in providing sex-determination services to expecting parents. Ludhiana has over 40 such well-equipped clinics. Most small towns are dotted with clinics boasting of 'ultra-sound test available' signboards, and few doubts what the facility is mostly used for. Hundreds of pregnancies, mostly female, are terminated at these clinics for paltry sums.

And yet, when Census 2001 pegs Punjab at near bottom of sex-ratio tables, officials are "shocked and surprised" and most ready to agree that "the situation is an alarming one". Time for buck-passing, and they all know the game.

Family planning officials said implementation of legislation preventing misuse of pre-natal diagnostic techniques is the task of Health department, which in turn claimed it only had over-arching responsibility and FP was specifically charged with the task. "It is a societal problem," they all agree. And no one seems to have a clue as to what should be the next step.

Census 2001 has shown Punjab taking a wrong turn during the last one decade when it came to sex ratio. The state with a sex ratio of 874 ranks 29^th, just a notch above Haryana, which is at rock bottom with 861, leaving aside some UTs.

The situation is alarming since Punjab, which had hit a ratio as low as 780 in 1911, has been registering better figures successively during each census and 1991 had recorded the best ever – 882.

"We have to be very careful from here onwards. Remember that Punjab had once slumped from 832 in 1901 to 780 in 1911. The trend needs to be arrested now, and most importantly, fast," said Gurmit Palahi, a community worker par excellence working in Doaba heartbelt of Punjab. 

Most NGOs and government officials agreed that female foeticide was not just a major but a main reason for the current state of affairs. "Data is very clear on this. There is a sharp fall in the sex ratio of children in age group 0-6. It has come down from 875 in 1991 to 793 in 2001, while overall sex ratio has tumbled only from 882 to 874," said Inderjit Singh, Director of Census Operations, Punjab.

Agreed Punjab’s Health Director Dr G S Preet. "Yes, female foeticide is major reason. We are aware of it. I am also shocked at the results and these are a cause of worry."

He blamed rampant foeticide in some well equipped and a large number of seedy clinics on the non-implementation of the 1994 Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.

The Act was meant for regulating the technology to detect "genetic or metabolic disorders or chromosomal abnormalities or certain congenital malformations or sex linked disorders". The Act was also specifically aimed at "prevention of the misuse of such techniques for the purpose of pre-natal sex determination leading to female foeticide" but clearly it has failed miserably in this aspect.

"It is a difficult piece of legislation to implement. People want to get an ultrasound test for sundry excuses, and then end up misusing the result once they know of the gender of unborn child,” lamented Dr Preet.

Dr Komila Parthi of CRRID who has been actively engaged in the field studying various aspects related to family planning agreed that the act was indeed difficult to maintain.

"You must understand that it has little to do with the law, far more with the equity that society puts on a male child. We, during our field work, have encountered innumerable instances of well to do and educated families going in for female foeticide. Women often tell us that sade ghar bachha koyee nahin hai, sirf panj kurrian han (we don’t have a child, only five girls). Obviously, girl child does not count for much,” said Dr Parthi.

Often the ANM nurses in villages and other para-medic staff act as a go-between referring cases for female foeticide to clinics in cities for paltry commissions. Dr Preet said he sometimes receives such complaints "but then it is very difficult to prove anything as most such crimes are blind ones, no evidence, and the case is closed."

It takes almost peanuts to detect and kill a girl child before it is born. For just Rs 300 to Rs 2000 depending upon how up-market the clinic is, one can get a female child aborted. No awkward questions asked. And no shame involved either, as social activists in the field said acceptability of a woman who terminates her pregnancy because of the child's gender does not suffer a wee bit.

All one needs to set up a clinic for such services is an ultra sound machine, which takes an investment of about Rs 5-7 lakh. "A number of short term courses for such techniques are available, and in the absence of some regulatory authority, these clinics are mushrooming by the day," said Dr Satwinder Grewal of LS Diagnostic Centre in Ludhiana who himself turns away a couple of patients each week looking for such a service.

Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Dr Rajinder Kaur said there should be some legislation for registration of mushrooming nursing homes to keep some regulatory check.

Pawan Sharma, also working with CRRID, said little can be achieved by tinkering with the law. "By making the law more harsh, you'll only end up jacking the clinic's fee for doing the dirty job. Since technology is available, people would find a way to get it, unless, that is, the society does some inward thinking," he said.

And that seemed to be the consensus. An introspection, a consolidated effort by the media, a move towards some real women empowerment on the ground and not just in sundry seminars and parliamentary debates. And yes, also a vow that we shall stop being surprised as a matter of some esoteric ritual at the mention of skewed sex ratios.■

April 3, 2002

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