By IANS,
New Delhi: Aiming to form policies to discourage sex selection and female foeticide in India, especially with the latest census showing a low child sex ratio, a new advisory board on pre-natal tests is to meet Wednesday.
The newly-constituted Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques panel was reconstituted earlier this month after the preliminary Census report showed the lowest child sex ration since independence.
“The board will review implementation of the Pre-conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PC & PNDT Act),” a health ministry official said Tuesday.
State Secretaries of 17 States/UTs, which showed particularly skewed sex ratios in the recent census, have been called with the objective to send home the message to undertake more effective implementation of the PC & PNDT Act to prevent sex determination, he said.
Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar are the states that will be present at the meeting.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad chairs the board while Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath is co-chair. Health Secretary K. Chandramouli is vice-chairman of the 35-member board.
The PC & PNDT Act bans the use of sex selection techniques before or after conception as well as misuse of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for sex selective abortions. However, with the preliminary report of 2011 Census showing lowest child sex ratio (0-6) since independence, the health ministry is now taking steps to control the trend of sex-selection.
According to 2011 census, child sex ratio (0 to 6) declined to reach an all time low of 914, from 927 in the 2001 census.