80 cases of fetal sex checks in 16 years, no one jailed so far

BENGALURU: The success of the Bhagyalakshmi scheme, which sought to encourage girl childbirths, does not imply female feticide and fetal sex determination have been on the wane, health workers and activists on the ground say.
Health and family welfare department officials claim every pregnant woman is on their radar once she steps into a registered ultrasound scanning centre but health workers say there is many a slip – from traditional healers to charlatans to fortune-tellers to manipulation at scanning centres.
The latest such instance, they say, is of a woman from Chitradurga who pushed a gynaecologist to reveal the sex of the fetus. The doctor from Challakere confessed to having done so as she was emotionally blackmailed by the mother-to-be.
The gynaecologist said the woman wanted an abortion as she had had two daughters and feared domestic violence if she gave birth to another daughter. The doctor then agreed to help her terminate the pregnancy illegally in the sixth month.
On January 29, the woman took the first dose of medication to terminate the pregnancy and the next day, her condition deteriorated and she was rushed to Challakere taluk hospital by her husband. The husband later kicked up a ruckus at the gynaecologist’s hospital, due to which the matter reached the health department.
Chitradurga district health officer Dr Neeraj BV told TOI that a private complaint had been registered and the case was in the Judicial Magistrate First Class for violation of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act. “The gynaecologist has confessed before a state-level committee that she tried to help the woman terminate the pregnancy on humanitarian grounds,” Neeraj said.
Even so, the Chitradurga case came to light as a case of termination of pregnancy and not sex determination as no recording of the scan was available. The woman’s condition has since improved and she is continuing the pregnancy. The scanning machine used for the fetal sex determination has been seized.
Health workers say such malpractice is common but not all cases come to light. From 2002 to 2018, Karnataka has reported only 80 cases of violation of Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act. While 39 cases are being heard, in 41 cases, the accused doctors have been let off with a fine. Data from the health and family welfare department shows not a single individual has been jailed for the offences. Violation of the PCPNDT Act is punishable with three years’ imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine.
The government maintains that checks are in place. “Stringent action will be taken against female feticide and sex determination tests. The government is tracking every pregnant woman undergoing an ultrasound scan through the centralised Balika software,” said Dr Prabhu Gowda, deputy director of the PCPNDT Cell of the health and family welfare department.
He added that the department would conduct decoy operations to trap violators. However, an advertisement by the department inviting pregnant women to act as decoys has received no response.
“The numbers are only indicators and sometimes they might even be misleading,” said a health activist working in rural Belagavi. “The PCPNDT Act covers only registered ultrasound scanning centres. But sex determination is also done by alternative medicine practitioners or even in some religious centres where fortune-tellers predict the sex of a baby and the family takes measures on their own to end pregnancies. None of these come under the government’s radar.”
Besides Bhagyalakshmi, the state government has taken up Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme in Bagalakote, Haveri, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada and Vijayapura districts to encourage girls’ education.
But Prof T R Chandrashekar, former head of the Department of Developmental Studies, Kannada University, Hampi, believes such schemes have not made a big impact. “The efforts of the government to bring in gender equality through these schemes are in the right direction but they are not enough. The implementation of PCPNDT Act must be further strengthened,” Chandrashekar said.