No proposal to make pregnancy registration compulsory : Minister

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Government today denied about any proposal to make registration of pregnancies mandatory to check female foeticide.

Answering Mr Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi in the Rajya Sabha Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi declined to comment if such a registration would prevent women who willingly submit themselves to abortions at an advanced stage of pregnancy.

In another written answer, the minister said the child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years in 2001 was 927 girls per thousand boys compared to 945 girls recorded in 1991 census.

She said to check female foeticide, the government had enacted pre-conception and prenatal diagnostic techniques act to prevent these techniques from contributing to declining sex ratio. Use of ultrasound machines had also been brought within the purview of this act more explicitly to curb their misuse and detection and disclosure of sex of the foetus. The sale of these machines were regulated and could be sold only to bodies registered under the law.

She said 402 cases were filed under PC and PNDT Act upto August of which 140 cases were for non-registration of ultrasound clinics 135 for non-maintenance of records, 61 for communication of sex of the foetus, 36 for advertising about prenatal conception diagnostic facilities and 30 others for violations of the act or rules.

UNI