Rose or Sweet Box? Portable Devices new Scourge in Sex Selection.

Indian Express : Coimbotore : Thursday, February 26, 2015.

The Supreme Court guidelines banning pre-natal sex determination and The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, do not seem to have deterred the use of handheld portable ultrasound scan devices by private hospitals across the State. Inquiries with activists, NGOs and health officials revealed that many scan centres in Cuddalore, Tiruvallur, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts disclose the sex of the foetus using such devices and some even help in sex-selective abortion.

Determination of the sex of foetus and foeticide has been cited as one of the reasons for low sex ratio.

Health Department sources said the portable units comprise a monitor (the size of micro laptops), a probe and cables and are compact enough to fit into a doctor’s briefcase.

Dr Hariprasad, block development officer in the Department of Public Health, Krishnagiri, said some qualified scan centres, to remain on the safer side, use code words or signals to reveal the gender of the foetus instead of giving authenticated reports. For instance, women pregnant with a male foetus would be given sweet boxes along with the receipt.

Seven scan centres in Cuddalore, Neyveli, Panruti and Vadalur areas use codes like chocolate or rose to indicate a female foetus.

A Chandranathan, director of Medical and Rural Health Services, said they were unaware of the misuse of the portable machines to identify foetal sex, but based on suspicion, surveillance teams would be deployed in Tiruvallur and Krishnagiri districts.

A senior health official acknowledged that scan centres in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri hide portable machines in locked rooms and provide records of conventional machines during inspection. Gunasundari, joint director of Health Services, Dharmapuri, said portable devices were often shifted within hospital premises making it difficult to track their use.

Scan centres under-report data

Though the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act mandates scan centres to submit a monthly report on the number of patients scanned in their centres, nearly 30 per cent of such centres have not submitted the report, an RTI query said.