The Child Sex Ratio (CSR) of Andhra Pradesh has dropped from 961 girls per 1,000 boys to 943 girls per 1,000 boys during the last decade, but in the last four years, the state health department has not recorded even a single violation under the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.
Going by the records, just about 16 cases have been filed under the Act between 2002 and 2007 and all these cases have been booked against hospitals and scanning centres based in Hyderabad and are curiously pending. State health officials say they have no clue to the status of these cases.
Ironically, the state capital where the CSR fell from 943 to 938 girls per 1,000 boys happens to be the only district where the Act is supposedly enforced with an ‘iron hand’. Curiously, the district health department has not booked a single case this year. It also turns out that there is no budgetary allocation for the implementation of the Act.
Even as the Act has provisions for the use of invisible cameras, decoy witnesses and such other means to nab the culprits, officials are unable to act for lack of funds. “During workshops, the district medical and health officers who are the implementing authorities of the Act in districts question under which account they are supposed to bill the equipment,” says Dr Y Rama Padma, professor of demography at the Indian Institute of Health and Family Welfare. The institute holds sensitization workshops for the representatives of public and private sectors on the Act.
Dr Surya Prakash, a health expert, insists that health programmes are target-oriented and not holistic. While institutional deliveries, immunization, maternal and child mortality are some of the prime concerns, CSR has never figured in the top priorities of the government, he says.
The only saving grace this year which the officials can boast of is the sensitization workshop that was organized for a batch of judges last month by a team from the central government to ensure that these cases are dealt with in a more informed manner.
Officials at the Commissioner Family Welfare (CFW) however maintained that it is becoming difficult to implement the Act because both enforcement and the violations are being done by the medical fraternity. “Officials in the health department are also doctors and tend to be soft towards the violators. This has evolved into a weakness,” says Dr Raja Prasanna Kumar, additional director, CFW. Saying that the government is planning to appoint a full-time legal consultant, Dr Kumar said that last month, the visiting central government team booked six cases, including two, in Hyderabad and four in Warangal.
But the two ultrasound machines seized from two corporate hospital chains in Hyderabad were returned on the same day based on the `justification’ given by the hospitals. “There is a need to set targets. Unless strict measures are introduced, the violators will get away each time. Separate budget allocation for monitoring and proactive state/district level monitoring teams and ruthless penalization of doctors have to be taken up to improve the sex ratio,” suggests Dr Padma.
Times View
A few years ago, it was the government machinery that had set an example of sorts by effectively implementing the PNDT Act. There was a furore then with ultrasound centres crying foul, but the Act’s strict implementation reflected in the improved girl child figures the city reported then. It’s a shame that the same Act is now gathering dust even as the state’s sex ratio is falling. It’s time for the government to act before more girls die before they are born.
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