Orchie Bandhyopadhyay
In India, there are numerous laws aimed at empowerment of women. After independence, the Government of India took several initiatives, programmes and policies, apart from constitutional and legal safeguards for the empowerment of women in the country. A look at the number of laws aimed at protecting women in India should be enough to discourage any crime against women. There is a law to protect women from sex crimes, domestic violence, harassment of women for dowry, etc. The country surely believes that laws alone can enhance social conditions, and eradicate social evils. Though India is quick to frame laws aimed at protecting women in India, but more often than not these laws are reduced to a mockery.
Take the PCPNDT Act, for instance. Although there is a law banning sex-determination of unborn children, it would not be correct to say that the law is not breached. The reason for doing so is that if it’s a girl, the patriarchal family (conniving women included) gets a chance to abort the fetus and could hope for a boy next time. Thus, violation of the law itself sometimes lead to gender discrimination, against which it is enacted. Prenatal sex determination was banned in India in 1994, under the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act. The act aims to prevent sex-selective abortion, which, according to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, “has its roots in India’s long history of strong patriarchal influence in all spheres of life.”[ However, the PC&PNDT Act has been poorly enforced by states.
In Punjab, the conviction rate stands at a measly 4.09 per cent under the PC & PNDT Act. According to the Punjab Directorate of Family Welfare, out of the 122 cases lodged, only 20 were pertaining to sex determination tests ever since the Act was implemented. Also, 95 cases were registered till 2007 while remaining 27 cases were registered in past five years.
The low number of PNDT cases in Punjab has not only exposed the failure of the State Government in effectively implementing the Act, but also reflects the apathetic attitude of the authorities towards the illegal practices. To raise awareness, the Doctors Opposing Sex Selective Termination (DOSST) cell, an initiative of Ludhiana Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society and supported by the Ludhiana Radiological Association (LRA ), regularly hold meetings and walks to fight against sex-selected abortions.
Additional solicitor general Indira Jaising said the Act provided enough powers to the agencies enforcing the law banning pre-natal sex determination and it was for the states to have a will to implement the legislation in letter and spirit. The country has 36,000 registered sonography centres. Besides, there are unregistered centres. There are 333 ultrasound machines in south Delhi alone. Then, portable machines are used as mobile units. All these contribute to foeticide, experts say. Sonography centres don’t keep adequate records and inspections of these centres
Experts feel the health ministry should be held accountable for the falling numbers. “It is a mass medical crime, and the solution is to punish doctors.” Dr Kamala Ganesh, a Delhi-based obstetrician and gynecologist, said.
Amidst such a background, it is amazing at the least and dumbfounding at the worst the Planning Commission’s proposal to “adopt” unwanted female fetuses to bring about an improvement in the child sex-ratio in the country. The Planning Commission is putting up this appalling proposal in the name of “choice and flexibility”, such a step would be utterly regressive leading to further decimation of female fetuses. Moreover, it would negate the long agitation and struggle women activists and other concerned people waged against the Government to pass the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC&PNDTA), a legislation upheld by courts all over the country. Even then, the 2001 and 2011 census figures show that the Act has not been of much help either. (IFS)
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