Call centre,website for whistleblowers

The state government has identified five districts,which have child sex ratio less than the national average of 914 girls per 1,000 boys,and is focusing on action against sonography clinics. A state-level monitoring committee recently visited Beed,which has the lowest child sex ratio in the state,after several female foetuses were found dumped in Parli region.

Chavan had admitted that the dropping girl child ratio was a serious issue and said the government was thinking of devising some means of developing a “whistleblower” concept to tackle the problem.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had,last month,sent a letter to the chief minister urging him to personally look into the issue of dropping child sex ratio and take measures to ensure that the provisions of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act are meticulously followed. The state government has sought amendments to the Act to restrict the use of abortion pills. It has also sought to ensure these pills are sold only in tertiary care hospitals through a gynaecologist. The government is now in the process of appointing legal advisors for PCPNDT for each district.