Shaking off the apathy

None other than a top official in the Maharashtra health ministry recounted how girls from a tribal village of Gadchiroli district in the state were being 8216;married8217; off to boys in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.

None other than a top official in the Maharashtra health ministry recounted how girls from a tribal village of Gadchiroli district in the state were being 8216;married8217; off to boys in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. It8217;s a telling comment on the times when parents have to 8216;buy8217; brides for Rs 14,000 just because Madhya Pradesh has a deficit of women.

So when the national implementation and monitoring committee recently swooped down on diagnostic clinics and hospitals in Pune and Mumbai, it was literally to create 8216;fear8217; in the minds of doctors that there was a big boss out there taking a really stern look at the trend of missing girls in the country.

High time indeed that such 8216;shock treatment8217; was administered, admits Sushma T. Rath, under-secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, who along with her team has been 8216;raiding8217; clinics and pulling up doctors for not maintaining records and filling up the crucial Form 8216;F8217;s. Finally, the top brass seems to have realised that they cannot stop with just setting up the appropriate authorities and advisory committees to implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques PC-PNDT Act; that it takes guts and a great deal of perseverance to trap doctors and bring a great social evil to an end.

But will this team be successful in their efforts? The infant child ratio 0-6 years at the national level has declined from 945 girls per 1000 boys in 1991 to 927 girls per 1000 boys in 2001. And those census figures are six years old.

The statistics are horrifying in states like Punjab 8212; 798 girls per 1000 boys; Haryana 8212; 819; Chandigarh 8212; 845; Delhi 8212; 868 girls; Gujarat 8212; 883; and Himachal Pradesh 8212; 896. Is the strict and pro-active implementation of the PC-PNDT Act the only solution? Can this be enough in a country where the elimination of the girl child is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in our society 8212; a reminder of the secondary status of women? Given the crisis facing the nation, any move of this kind is welcome. Even if the Central team does not catch the doctors red-handed, at least the medical community is being made aware that it is being watched. At least some of the numerous doctors who claim to be 8220;preaching against sex-determination8221;, even as they quietly conduct sex-selective abortions for a handsome consideration, will take note of these raids. At least advisory committees will meet more often and states will set up their own implementation and monitoring committees. At least the earlier lethargy has been replaced by a sense of purpose.

But we need to keep at it.