Haryana to keep track of pregnant women

Chandigarh, Apr 23: Grappling with a low sex ratio and increasing incidents of female foeticide, the Haryana administration has set up a special mechanism to keep track of all pregnant women and ultrasound centres in the state.

The Health Department in the state has established district level Appropriate Authorities which would monitor all pregnant women in their respective areas from the third month of pregnancy to the delivery stage.

After the delivery, the field staff of the Appropriate Authority would visit the family concerned to find out the fate of the new-born child. In case, the baby is found missing or reported to have died an unnatural death and a case of female foeticide detected, the Authority would take action against the unltrasound centre concerned and the parents of the child.

Observing that the sex ratio in the state was as low as 861 females per 1000 males, Health Director N K Sharma said the Appropriate Authorities were proving quite effective in tackling the problem of female foeticide.

As many as 63 ultrasound machines had already been seized or sealed in the state with the help of various district Appropriate Authorities. Registration of 114 ultrasound clinics had been suspended or cancelled.

The Health Deparment, he said, had also been successful in getting a guilty doctor and a technician convicted under the PNDT Act in Palwal town of Faridabad district. The duo had been sentenced to two-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each by a court in faridabad recently. The Deparment also caught a lady doctor in Rawari red handed while accepting money for a sex determination conducted by her recently.

The doctor was trapped by sending a pregnant woman as a decoy customer seeking sex determination test after the Appropriate Authority got complaints that she was conducting such tests at her nursing home.

Mr Sharma said the Appropriate Authorities were keeping a constant vigil on the ultrasound centres through the field staff.

The information about the pregnant women visiting them was also collected so that they could also be monitored till the delivery stage.

The state had so far registered 865 genetic clinics and 66 genetic counselling centres. Besides, 44 ultrasound centre were registerd in government hospitals and institutions.

The sex ratio in Haryana, which was 865 in 1991, had fallen to 861 in 2001 census. The child sex ratio also dropped by 60 points from 879 in 1991 to 819 in 2001.

A study conducted by Epos Health Consultant had warned that if this trend continued in Haryana, the sex ratio in the state would be 500 in 25 years, 250 in 40 years and 100 in 50 years.

UNI