Is It Legal to Know Gender of Baby in India
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.
The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex activity Selection) Deed, 2003, commonly called PC-PNDT Act, makes information technology illegal to determine the sex of the unborn child or even use sexual practice-selection technologies. The law first came into force in 1996 as the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, in response to the falling sex ratio and fears that ultrasound technologies were being used to make up one's mind the sex of the foetus. The law was amended in 2003 to bring the technique of preconception sex pick within the ambit of the Human activity – essentially, banning practices where medical practitioners attempt to influence the sex of the kid before conception by using techniques such as sperm sorting (where a sperm jail cell is specifically chosen because of its sex chromosome). The police force as it stands not only prohibits conclusion and disclosure of the sex of the foetus but also bans advertisements related to preconception and prenatal decision of sex.
What are the provisions of the Human activity?
Co-ordinate to the Act, ultrasound clinics, genetic counselling centres and genetic laboratories cannot exist used for conducting pre-natal diagnostic techniques except for detecting abnormalities such as chromosomal abnormalities, genetic metabolic diseases, sexual activity-linked genetic diseases and congenital anomalies. The Act makes information technology mandatory for all ultrasound facilities to be registered and for medical practitioners to maintain records of every scan done on significant women.
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What was the demand for such an Act and how many convictions have in that location been so far?
Since 2000, both high courts and the Supreme Courtroom take delivered a series of judgments, taking a serious view of sex-selective practices by the medical fraternity and the connectedness it may accept with skewed sex ratios. In September 2001, post-obit a public interest litigation – filed past the Middle for the Enquiry of Health and Allied Themes, rights group Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal and Dr Sabu George, who had been pushing for the effective implementation of the PMDT Act — the Supreme Court passed an order for strict implementation of the Act and reiterated it again in September 2003.
The charge per unit of confidence has been poor. From 2003 to Dec 2014, simply 206 doctors had been convicted by courts, of which Maharashtra had the highest number at 96, followed by Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. At least xv states and 4 union territories had nada convictions all these years.
The adult female and child evolution minister's proposal is that the gender of the child be compulsorily registered and the birth be tracked. Activists accept opposed the idea, proverb it will merely brand female foeticide more rampant. (Analogy past: C R Sasikumar)
Isn't the Human action constructive plenty?
According to experts, the problem isn't with the Act merely with its implementation. State advisory committees that help in implementing the Human activity do non encounter regularly. As well, there is poor monitoring of ultrasound clinics. Such clinics are required to maintain records of the scans they conduct but the violators are often let off with a fine.
What is Maneka Gandhi's proposal?
Responding to a question about people employing different means to detect the gender of an unborn child despite the existence of the Human activity, the Minister of Women and Child Development said in Jaipur that she had proposed "to all parties and ministers" that the gender of the child exist compulsorily registered and the nascency exist tracked. "This PC-PNDT Human activity is not nether me, simply with the health ministry building. Merely till when will we keep arresting people? In this country, if a person goes to an ultrasound owner and asks for the gender of his (unborn) kid, who will dare say no," Maneka said. She later clarified that hers was only an "alternative view" and that no such formal proposal was being considered either by the ministry or the Cabinet.
What are the objections to Maneka Gandhi'due south proposal?
Activists and experts accept roundly opposed the idea, saying it will only brand female foeticide more rampant. "How feasible is it to monitor 29 million pregnancies annually when the government hasn't been able to check fifty,000 ultrasound clinics," Dr George, the campaigner for 'saving the girl kid', told The Indian Express.
Experts say that the idea of compulsory sex determination volition simply push women to unsafe abortions. "There will exist greater pressure on the pregnant adult female from her family if they find out early that her second or third kid is a daughter," said George.
Experts also say that no exam tin be made mandatory in a democracy such equally Bharat. Besides, they say, the proposal is an encroachment on a woman'due south reproductive rights and shifts the brunt on the adult female by criminalising her. "Spare the woman. It's more import to modify societal mindsets," says Vibhuti Patel, caput of the section of economics at SNDT Bombay University and a adult female's rights activist.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/sex-determination-an-old-law-a-new-debate/
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