77 sonography centres sealed across state….Umesh IsalkarUmesh Isalkar
PUNE: Health officials have sealed 77 sonography centres and derecognised 22 medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) centres across the state in the last ten days.
The state’s skewed sex ratio (883 girls per 1000 boys) and discovery of three female foetus in a river in Beed district recently made the health officials step up monitoring and ensure effective implementation of the PCPNDT (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act of 1994.
“For the first time in Maharashtra strict action has been taken against sonography centres on such a large scale. We will file criminal cases against all doctors involved in running sonography centres in violation of the provisions of the PCPNDT Act,” said Suresh Gupta, additional director of state family welfare bureau.
Since June 13, 961 sonography centres and 399 MTP centres have been raided. Among them, 77 sonography centres have been sealed and 22 MTPs have been derecognised, said Gupta.
The state has total 7,939 sonography centres and over 90% of them are in the private sector. “We are monitoring government-run sonography centres as well. In fact, two sonography centres located at the sub-district rural hospitals in the state have been sealed so far,” Gupta said.
Twenty-seven sonography centres were sealed in Beed district alone, followed by Pune city (9), Jalgaon (6), Osmanabad (5), Nashik (5), Navi Mumbai (4), Parbhani (4), Nanded (3), Jalna (3), Dhule (3), Latur (2), Hingoli (2), Buldhana (2), Meera Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (1) and Ratnagiri (1).
MTP centres derecognised in Beed (6), Nashik (6), Nanded (3), Parbhani (2) and one each in Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli, Satara and Thane.
“Officials found irregularities such as non-maintenance of records, absence of sinologist, purchasing of sonography machines without permission and non-renewal of registration,” Gupta said.
At the district level, civil surgeons, district collector and additional collector can take action and conduct raids while at taluka level, medical superintendents of rural hospitals, tehsildar and naib-tehsildar are authorised. In small towns, chief officers of municipal councils can conduct raids. “Some of these officials are still not carrying out raids as instructed. They have been issued a warning,” Gupta said. The raids will continue till June 30.
Devendra Shirole, national vice-president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and IMA-UNFPA ambassador for ‘Save the girl child project – ‘Doctors for Daughters’ said, “Despite ample evidence of a flourishing illegal sex-determination business, only three doctors have been convicted under the PCPNDT Act so far. This proves that officials supposed to keep a check on sonography centres are not taking their work seriously.”
People must be made aware of sex determination tests and the impending gender crisis. Advocacy of greater gender equality and increased awareness about the PCPNDT Act and its recent amendment that bans any form of sex detection tests is also necessary, said senior health activist Anant Phadke.As per the provisional figure of the 2011 census, the child sex ratio of Maharashtra is 883 girls per 1,000 male children (down by 30 points since 2001). The decline was maximum in Beed district (93 points) which now has 848 girls per 1,000 boys.