Sex test: One more clinic busted, 4th in NCR this year

GURUGRAM: The health department conducted a raid at a clinic in Faridabad and arrested a quack who was allegedly conducting illegal sex determination tests and abortions on Monday evening.
This is the fourth raid carried out by health officials in NCR this year. The department initiated the operation after a tip-off. The arrested man, a Class 12 passout, was allegedly carrying out abortions at an unregistered clinic in Bharat Colony.
“A team of health officials took a pregnant woman as a decoy to the illegal centre.The quack asked the woman to pay Rs 1,000 for the abortion. The decoy informed the health team and soon afterwards, they nabbed him and recovered a portable ultrasound machine from the clinic,” said Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer, Gurugram.
According to an official, the arrested man used to illegally conduct sex determination tests with the help of the ultrasound machine and gave medical termination of pregnancy kits to abort the fetus, endangering the life of the mother. “To improve the sex ratio at birth (SRB, the number of girls born per 1,000 boys), our teams are carrying out several raids in Gurugram as well as other districts,” Yadav said.
A case was filed against the quack under relevant sections of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 at Bharat Colony police station on Monday night.
The health department conducted 15 raids last year and arrested more than 17 people. The investigations in several other cases are still going on. To ensure that the girl fetus is not aborted, the health department needs to carry out regular monitoring at ultrasound centres.
As a result, the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme was launched in 2015, following which the state witnessed a considerable and consistent improvement in SRB. In 2015, the SRB of Haryana was 876, which rose to 900 in 2016, followed by 914 the next year. It remained the same in 2018 and rose to 923 in 2019. The SRB dipped slightly to 922 in 2020 and 914 in 2021. It was 916 last year.
On Jan 29, the district administration issued notices to 12 health centres asking to explain why the SRB recorded in their specific areas was less than 900 in 2022.
Of the 12, the worst SRB was recorded at 583 in Daultabad. It was followed by Gurugram village, where the SRB was 700 last year. The city’s overall SRB improved to 942 last year, from 908 in 2021. The city’s SRB was 921 in 2020, 910 in 2019 and 901 in 2018.
Government data indicates action against prenatal sex determination may have been affected in the pandemic years. About 114 cases for illegal sex determination were registered across Haryana in 2021-22, a slight fall from 118 in 2019-20. Before that, in 2018-19, 681 cases were registered; 577 the previous year and 214 in 2015-16.