Stating that it is difficult to track every sonography examination of pregnant women, president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr Medha Salkar, in an interview with Abdul Wahab Khan recommends the state government to make sex-determination test compulsory in all obstetric sonography centres so that all female foetuses can be officially tracked and recorded by authorities
Q: What are the reasons for the declining child sex ratio at birth in the state?
It’s definitely not due to pre-natal diagnosis of the girl child and aborting her. I personally feel that the so-called educated couples don’t go in for a second child, if the first child is a boy, and in Goa, around 30 per cent of the couples don’t have children either due to medical cause or by choice.
Q: What are the shortcomings of implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 in the state? How can it be strengthened?
It’s difficult to track every sonography examination of pregnant women. Though software is made available, it may still not detect 100 per cent pre-natal sex determination.
Q: How are the sex-selection and sex-detection technologies misused for gender-based discrimination in the state? How can we prevent it?
I have no idea how technology can be misused.
Q: What steps has IMA taken to check female foeticide?
We hold regular medical education programmes for our members and other professional bodies like obstetrics associations and their members to spread awareness on the issue. The IMA also works for the improvement of public health, and medical education and maintenance of honour and dignity of the medical profession.
Q: Doctors are held responsible for foeticide under the PCPNDT Act. Couples do sex-selection tests in many ways and they go in for abortion. There is no system to keep track of them. What effective steps need to be taken to check female foeticide?
The best way is for a doctor to observe ethical obligation towards patient and put a self-imposed regulation on himself or herself so that even if a couple wants to know the sex of a baby, he must flatly refuse. It takes two to tango. So also, behavioural changes are required in couples. The society needs to change its attitude towards the girl child and must respect women.
Q: Do you think the measures recommended by the Public Accounts Committee to the Maharashtra government to make pre-natal sex determination compulsory should be implemented by our state government by making pre-natal sex determination test mandatory for all pregnant women and thus track pregnant women carrying female foetuses so as to stop female foeticide?
I absolutely agree and strongly believe in such a concept.
Q: At the national level, the IMA has extended its support to Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi’s views on making sex determination compulsory in all obstetric sonography centres so that all female foetuses can be officially tracked. Are you of the same opinion to lift a 20-year-old ban on foetal sex determination?
I welcome the statement of the Women and Child Development Minister and I also fully agree and support the national IMA’s views on making child sex determination compulsory. It’s very clear that once a sonography correctly predicts gender of the baby, the concerned authority can track women pregnant with girl child, regularly ensuring that these mothers don’t go in for abortion. Once family members of a pregnant mother are aware that the expecting mother is under watch by the authority, they will not dare to go in for illegal abortion.
Q: Moreover, it would be easier to track around 158 registered ultrasound clinics than to keep a track of lakhs of pregnant women. But don’t you think such steps will only lead to people taking doctors’ help to know the sex of the unborn child and eliminate girls?
If technology is used properly, it will be easy to check female foeticide.