Sex determination is a punishable offence and is prohibited under the PCPNDT Act – usually, this notice is found outside diagnostic centres and gynaecologists’ clinics across the country. Gujarat is no exception.
Yet there are numerous instances where raids have been conducted, diagnostic machines have been seized, and clinics sealed for carrying out sex determination tests. There are also services of illegal abortions being offered. As recently as May this year, a Special Operations Group busted a female feticide racket in Bavla. An ex-nurse was arrested for doing unauthorised termination of pregnancies from a guest house in the small town.
Now, a step further. Tossing aside the slogan of “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (Save the girl child, educate her), an instance has come to light in which an alleged doctor readily agreed to do a sex determination test of the foetus at the pregnant woman’s home in South Gujarat.
According to a report in Divya Bhaskar, a doctor from a hospital in Surat agreed to do the sex determination test at the woman’s home in Bardoli. The newspaper said that it decided to do the sting operation as there were reports of the practice happening in South Gujarat. The doctor was told that the woman was not able to travel and he was requested to come to her home.
As per the plan, the test was to be done on a woman who was not pregnant, but the doctor was told that the foetus was around three months and a few days old. A car was arranged for the doctor to reach Bardoli from Surat and a fee of Rs 20,000 was decided for the test.
The doctor arrived wearing a mask. He went inside the room where the woman was sleeping. She was asked to change her position. She followed the instructions. The doctor then took out a small ultrasound machine. Seeing this, he was asked by one of the persons who posed as a family member how such a small machine could determine the sex of the foetus.
The doctor said that the machine is portable and the result is accurate. If the diagnosis is inaccurate, he even offered to pay them Rs 5 lakh. He also told the family that in case there is a need for medical termination of pregnancy, they could get in touch with him.
Just then, an elderly person posing as the father-in-law of the “pregnant” woman walked in and told the doctor that they did not want her to undergo the test and that they had no issues with having a girl child or a male child.
The doctor, however, took Rs 10,000 as he had spent time coming all the way from
Surat. According to the newspaper, he even told the family that they should have been sure before calling him. “You unnecessarily had to give Rs 10,000,” he reportedly said.
In the Bavla case, radiologist Harshad Acharya was also arrested. They used to charge Rs 15,000 per case, and such services were offered in Ahmedabad, Anand, and Vadodara, the police had said.
Notably, these ultrasound machines cannot be purchased without the permission of the respective state governments.
The sex determination tests and the unauthorised medical termination of pregnancies come as a shocker in Gujarat, which has a skewed sex ratio. As per the census of 2011, for every 1,000 boys there are 890 girls.
Minaxi Joshi, a women’s rights activist, told Vibes of India that we have some systems in place and it should not be an issue to identify who is doing it. She questioned who is selling these machines and who is buying them when it is mandatory to register these machines. Is it that these are registered in the names of hospitals and someone else is using them, she wondered.
In the age of Swiggy, what kind of services are we entering into, Joshi remarked.
Despite laws and loud awareness campaigns, illegal sex determination and female foeticide cases show the seamier side of Gujarat. What’s unsettling is that it’s done under the watch of medical practitioners, who are not only life savers but also the society’s conscience keepers.
Technology such as ultrasound machines is being blatantly exploited for the wrong reasons. Activists may take to the streets to protest, but without implementation of laws, such practices will continue to exist.
Also Read: Female Feticide Racket Busted In Gujarat: Abortions Carried Out At Home https://www.vibesofindia.com/female-feticide-racket-busted-in-gujarat-abortions-carried-out-at-home/
