Ahmedabad
Mirror: Ahmedabad: Tuesday, 11 November 2014.
AMISHA
YAGNIK recounted her
horror story in the episode on 'female foeticide' of Aamir Khan-anchored
Satyamev Jayate in 2012. She was forced to abort her unborn girl child six
times in eight years. Later her husband was arrested and a case registered
against him.
IN MARCH,
2009 the state govt
moved a plea in the sessions court to accuse a doctor of causing miscarriage.
The court was conducting a trial against six accused on the basis of a
complaint filed by Mamta Viradia against her in-laws for forcible abortion of
female foetus.
AVANTIKA
MISTRY, 30-year-old
resident of Ranip, committed suicide on Sept 20 this year after she was
allegedly forced to abort a female foetus. On Sept 14, her mother-in-law had
taken her to Surat where she was forced to undergo a sex determination test.
ON APRIL
19, 2010, female
foetuses were found in garbage near Shastri Stadium in Bapunagar. It was later
found that these foetuses were disposed of by a clinic. The doctor was detained
by cops. The then AMC medical officer accepted existence of such private
clinics.
These are a
few cases which caught public attention and many more cases remain unreported.
Yet, an RTI filed by Mirror with the health and family welfare department
elicited the response on October 30 that in seven years beginning 2008, no case
of female foeticide has been registered against anyone and hence no one has
been convicted. Either the authorities concerned are giving wrong information
or have not bothered to collect relevant information.
The
discrimination against girl child also gets reflected in the state's declining
sex ratio. According to 2001 Census report, there were 964 girl children per
1,000 boy children. The ratio declined to 886 in 2011 Census. Echoing the
concern, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has stated that cases of female
foeticide are still reported in the state despite the government undertaking
awareness campaigns on falling sex ratio and need to end the practice.
KILLING
PREVALENT: CM
"Even
today, female foeticide takes place in Gujarat. When I go to villages and check
the figures of pregnant women with actual births, the numbers, many a time,
don't match due to female foeticide, resulting in decline in sex ratio,"
Patel had told women farmers' conclave organised as part of Krishi Mahotsav
earlier this year in Gandhinagar. But shockingly the response to an RTI
application filed by Mirror mentioned that in seven years, from 2008 to 2014,
no case of female foeticide has been registered against anyone and hence no one
has been put on trial or convicted. People have been charged with conducting
sex determination tests, though. However, the conviction rate has been less
than 4 per cent, according to official data. Despite the state government taking
up several initiatives Beti Bachao Abhiyan being the premier programme the RTI
revelation makes it evident they have been poorly implemented.
'DATA NOT
COLLECTED'
As girl child
right activists say, collecting data related to female foeticide has become the
biggest hurdle as most of the cases go unreported. "If there is no proper
reporting, how would anyone get convicted? In fact, many reported cases are not
brought to logical conclusion due to inefficiency in governance," said
Smita Bajpai, maternal and child health programme officer at CHETNA, an NGO
working in health sector. According to Dr Donald Christian of the Department of
Community Medicine of GSC Medical College, around 20 per cent women would have
aborted their girl child had they known the gender of the child earlier. More
shockingly, many pregnant women who were surveyed by Dr Christian during his
study 'Pregnant women's awareness for saving the girl child' said that they
wanted male child as they did not want their Daughter to go through the same
hardship as they had experienced.
CONVICTION
RATE 3.9%
The data
provided by the government shows the conviction rate in the state under the
Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act is only
3.9 per cent. Similarly, in 2013, former Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad
in a written reply to Rajya Sabha had stated that only 143 people had been
punished for conducting sex determination tests since the enactment of the act
in 1996. Maharashtra with 50 has punished the highest number of offenders under
the Act but till date, Gujarat has convicted only six people under the Act. An
official requesting anonymity said, "Even though sex determination test is
illegal in the country, it is still in practice on the outskirts of the city.
Many doctors illegally perform this evil practice."
NOT OUR
AREA: ASST DIRECTOR
Rakesh R
Vaidya, assistant director in the Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare,
said that the issue of female foeticide did not fall under its jurisdiction. If
any person has been accused of killing a female foetus, it falls under Section
315 and 316 of the Indian Penal Code. "Sex determination of an unborn
child is illegal and is a punishable offence. Our department is responsible to
stop such criminal activity but looking into female foeticide is beyond our
jurisdiction," added Dr Vaidya.
CONFUSION
OVER FOETICIDE
Not only do
cases of female foeticide go unreported, there seems to be confusion on the
impact of the state's "Save the girl child" campaign. On June 1 this
year, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel sought co-operation from religious
leaders in the government's movement to save the girl child and prevent female
foeticide yet she claimed that the state had successfully eradicated the
menace. "I make a request to holy men to expedite the movement to save the
girl child," she said, addressing a religious event in Junagadh district
but went on to add, "Gujarat government has been successful in eradicating
female foeticide. So, today the state's sex ratio is 904, while a few years
ago, it was 804," she was reported as saying by PTI. Nine days later she
told the conclave of women farmers in Gandhinagar that female foeticide still
took place in Gujarat..
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