Why not detect sex of foetus, then protect girl child

New Delhi: A ban on sex determination tests through a law may stop female foeticide but female infanticide will happen, Indian Medical Association chief Dr R V Asokan has said, arguing that a social evil cannot have a medical solution.

In an interaction with PTI editors, Asokan said IMA is working on a document to revamp the existing Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act, which prohibits pre-natal diagnostic techniques for determination of the sex of the foetus and holds doctors accountable. “And one suggestion would be why not detect the sex of the foetus and then protect the girl child,” he said.

“For a social evil you cannot have a medical solution. Is it workable or practical? Let us discuss that. What will happen is that if you don’t correct the social evil, female foeticide will disappear, female infanticide will happen,” he explained.

In Asokan’s view, the PC-PNDT Act is completely warped, short sighted and NGO driven. “We have a stake in preventing female foeticide but we don’t agree with the methodology PC-PNDT Act has taken. The methodology has caused so much difficulty for doctors,” Asokan, who is IMA’s national president, said.

“If there is one law we want to be taken out of the statute that is PC-PNDT. It doesn’t deserve its place,” he said. The doctors’ body has been demanding re-envisioning of the PC-PNDT Act for quite some time. According to Asokan, there are no differences of opinion about saving the girl child. “The common objective is one... presuming all the doctors to be culpable and anti-life is very wrong,” he stressed. The IMA, Asokan added, is aggrieved over certain rules in the act and with doctors being pulled up for technical lapses and incorrect filling of forms. The regulations that have come up on the matter are very unfair, he said. For instance, the regulation states that machines cannot even be moved from one room to another room.

“Moreover, not filling up ‘Form F’ is considered to be equal to female foeticide,” he elaborated. Form F under the PC-PNDT Act records the medical history of a pregnant woman and why the ultrasound is being done. Under the present law, doctors not filling up Form F properly are given the same punishment as someone who does a sex determination test.

“An institution like the Honourable Supreme Court has said if you do not fill up Form F you are committing female foeticide. How is this acceptable?” he asked. The IMA chief cited an instance from Coimbatore 15 days ago when a gynaecologist was convicted and sentenced for three years for not filling up Form F properly. “The law is NGO driven, initiated by the Supreme Court of India. There is a layman perspective in the law...

“So we have been having brainstorming sessions and thinking why not detect the sex, detect the female child and then protect that child. It is possible... tag that child, see what happens to her, follow the mother and see that the girl child is delivered normally.”

Asokan lamented the fact that the entire medical profession is in the dock because of a few black sheep. “Now I want the profession to be out of it. We are not saying that it (sex determination) should be allowed. If this is acceptable you accept it. Otherwise remove those harassment points.” Asokan said the document they are working on will come up in the central working committee of the IMA and the idea is to “provoke a discussion even in the Supreme Court” if necessary.