As law crawls, Maharashtra sex ratio drops more……Anuradha Mascarenhas
The latest data of Maharashtras health management information system (HMIS) has some bad news for the state. It reveals that the ratio of girls per 1000 boys in the state has dipped from 877 in March 2009 to 869 girls till March this year. According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) data available with the office of Registrar General, the sex ratio at birth shows that at the national level it has increased from 892 girls per 1000 boys in 2001-03 to 904 in 2006-08. However, the trends and levels of sex ratio at birth vary from state to state. In Maharashtra, for instance, from 887 girls per 1000 boys in 2001-2003 it went down marginally to 884 in 2006-08.
As per global trends, the child sex ratio should be more than 950 girls per 1000 boys. A sex ratio at birth of 880-900 implies that 50-70 girls are missing out of the expected 952 girls for every 1000 boys, says Dr P M Kulkarni, professor of demography at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In his analysis of the estimation of missing girls at birth and juvenile ages, Kulkarni says the sex ratio at birth in the country for 2006-08 was 904 while the internationally observed normal sex ratio at birth is 952 or more girls per 1000 boys. Hence, it is estimated that the practice of prenatal sex selection has resulted in an approximate 6 lakh girls missing annually in the country from 2001-07. This is roughly 1,600 girls per day, he points out.
The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act was first enacted in 1994 and amended in 2003. It provides for imprisonment which may extend to three years and a fine up to Rs 30,000. The law suffers from bottlenecks in implementation, admits Dr Prakash Doke, Executive Director of Maharashtra State Health Systems Resource Centre (SHSRC).
Out of the 101 pending cases in the court till May 2010 in Maharashtra, 18 are regarding non-registration of ultrasound machines, 56 are against doctors for non-maintenance of forms regarding the history of pregnant women, 17 are decoy cases, five are regarding misleading advertisements, says advocate Milind Salunkhe who has been recently appointed as a PC-PNDT advocate and advisor to the state governments appropriate authority for implementing the Act.
Take this case for instance: Want a baby boy? Meet foreign returned Dr Chhaya Tated, read an advertisement in a local magazine. The homeopath from Aurangabad was a visiting consultant at Dr Shubhangi Adkars Shree Nursing Home in Mumbai and claimed to offer specialised treatment to get a boy! This wasnt the first time that such an advertisement was published in the state. But it was for the first time in Maharashtra that a court took cognizance of the advertisement and pulled up the doctors for flouting the provisions of the PC-PNDT Act. They were sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000. The metropolitan magistrates court in Mumbai gave this ruling in August 2009. Both women are out on bail and have appealed against the verdict in a sessions court. This is just one instance of how slow the entire process is pertaining to the implementation of the PC-PNDT Act in Maharashtra.
Doke, along with the United Nations Population Fund, has taken up the massive task of training judges and public prosecutors about the PC-PNDT Act. Beed district has the worst sex ratio at less than 800 girls per 1000 boys. Worse, when cases are filed against the offenders, the progress till conviction is very slow. We need to address this and inform the judges about the seriousness of the issue. So far, we have trained 765 judges and 272 public prosecutors in 19 districts of Maharashtra, says Doke.