It didn’t take Kumar long to prove that the law wasn’t toothless after all. It all began with analysing the ’01 census figures—he was shocked to find that Hyderabad had the lowest child sex ratio (0-6 years) at 942 among all the 23 districts as against the Andhra Pradesh average of 961. This meant that for every 1,000 boys born there were only 942 girls. "It was obvious that human interference was behind these worrying figures," says Kumar.
A scan audit showed that Hyderabad had 389 centres (again, the highest in the state). "This clearly revealed that female foeticide is closely linked to the scan centres and is an urban phenomenon. A ward-wise micro-level analysis of Hyderabad district showed that the Ranigunj ward had the lowest child sex ratio of 838. Incidentally, this area also had the highest number of clinics," explains the collector. In short, it was time to crack down.
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Kumar first conducted a sensitisation workshop in October ’04. Only 124 scan centre operators turned up. "This wasn’t surprising because they believed ‘the law cannot touch us’," he says. He went on to collect information on Form F between Sept-Nov ’04. Form F is a list of 23 questions that scan centres are required to fill about the patient’s details, doctor’s referral, medical history etc. Importantly, it seeks to find out whether the woman had any justification for the scan and to follow through the entire course of her pregnancy. Only 245 out of the 389 centres submitted records to the district medical health officer.
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In 72 per cent of the cases, addresses of pregnant women were not mentioned. Fourteen per cent of women had come without a doctor’s referral, which is illegal. What was intriguing was a good majority of the scan centres claimed to be doing less than one scan per day on an average. This meant the centres weren’t actually getting the forms filled. Kumar got cracking and posted anganwadi workers at these centres at random. The workers reported that most centres had 15-24 clients a day.
After Kumar took over, 361 ultrasound scan centres were issued notices for non-compliance with the PNDT Act. Licences of 91 centres were cancelled. Some 83 machines were seized from them and 71 released after an undertaking and fine. Three suppliers; Wipro GE, Philips and Erbis Engg were prosecuted for supplying machines to clinics with no registration licences.
The collector has also been instrumental in starting a campaign against female foeticide. It is a rule for every scan clinic in Hyderabad to display a poster showing that sex selection and determination is a crime. Kumar has even written a manual on understanding and implementing the PNDT Act. An analysis of birth registrations between the years ’02-04 showed that only in two months, the number of girls born was more than boys whereas the same data between April-Oct ’05 revealed that in seven months, the number of girls born was higher than boys. But Kumar insists it’s too early to take credit. "We have to watch the trend for another five years at least because the women may be going to other districts for abortions and scans." Kumar says the onus of undergoing a scan should not be on the pregnant woman alone but on her spouse and relatives. When it comes to filing cases, the Hyderabad district collectorate hires the services of a gender-sensitive lawyer to ensure that the conviction rate is high.
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Contact: Collector, Hyderabad district, Nampally, Hyderabad-500001. Tel: 040-23202833, Mobile: 9848190099
