As sex ratio worsens, Plan panel makes taboo proposal
As the first line of defence against female foeticide,
sex determination tests on pregnant women have been illegal in India for
years. But in what could end up as a major policy shift, the Planning
Commission is proposing relaxing the ban for rural areas as part of a
programme of “adopting” female foetuses and generously incentivising
families and health workers to ensure the safe delivery of girl babies.
With
the latest census recording the lowest ever child sex ratio of 914
females to every 1000 males – the number in 1971 was 940 – the Planning
Commission is looking for “out of the box” ideas for dealing with the
continued preference for a male child. The ‘adopt a female foetus’
proposal was made by it during a multi-sectoral meeting held here last
week to review the implementation of the Pre Conception and Pre National
Diagnostic Technique Act and find a way forward.
“Instead
of totally banning sex determination, which the government has failed
to do, it would be a better idea to be flexible on allowing sex
determination — if families so choose — and in case it is a female
foetus, the government will ‘adopt’ it,” Planning Commission member
Syeda Hamid told The Hindu.
While the idea is
only in the initial stages, representatives from the Ministries of
Health and Family Planning, HRD, Panchayati Raj and Information &
Broadcasting broadly agreed with it.
Under the
scheme, the government would ensure the safety of the foetus until it is
born through its network of anganwadi workers, auxiliary nurse midwives
and accredited social health activists. For this, the workers would be
awarded huge cash incentives. The mother and the family would also be
given generous incentives – “worth carrying on with the pregnancy,” Ms.
Hamid explained.
However, the proposal has come in for sharp criticism from women’s groups who described it as “disastrous.”
“It
is an unfortunate way of looking at the situation,” Ranjana Kumari of
Women Power Connect said. Parents go in for sex selective abortions and
anganwadi workers or doctors had no role to play in changing their
decision. It is a mindset, she said, while the government had failed in
enforcing the law with a huge lobby working in favour of sex selection.