The PCPNDT Act

Preconception and prenatal diagnostic techniques act (PCPNDT Act) of India is a very important act. The progressively declining sex ratio is something that concerns the whole country, except those who contribute to the decline in the sex ratio. A day may arrive when there may not be any girls for boys to marry. It is wholly condemnable that one should select a baby of a desired sex before conception, or terminate a pregnancy if the fetal sex does not meet with parental approval. The act is very essential. Unfortunately very little is done towards actually stopping preconception and prenatal sex determination. The entire machinery seems to be working for registration of every centre and person which will have an ultrasonography machine. If the centre is not registered, or has a machine that is not included in the registration document, the centre and the machine are sealed, and the seal is removed after payment of a penalty 5 times the cost of the registration, i.e. 15000 INR. The persons employed to do this activity also check the centres doing ultrasonography, and if the form of ultrasonography has any blanks, the machine is sealed because the Act is violated. There is no activity towards actually stopping the sex determination. As if registration of the doctor and his machine will prevent him from determining sex prenatally. In other words, any criminals are now registered. The theme of the Act is to prevent the crime, not to ensure that any criminal is registered. The implementation of the Act has degenerated to such ridiculous levels, that even an ophthalmic ultrasonography machine and an echocardiography machine are forced to be registered. The Act also specifies who can register under this act. Obstetricians, pediatricians, registered practitioners with 6 months of training or 1 year of experience with performance of ultrasonography can register. It seems to imply that those who fit these criteria will not violate the Act. It also implies that only unregistered people violate the Act. That is as funny as presuming that those who make mistakes in filling the PCPNDT form for ultrasonography actually determine sex preconceptionally or prenatally. The real smart ones register themselves, their machines, see to it that the ultrasonography form is filled perfectly, and then determine the sex of the fetus anyway. They do not actually print the sex of the fetus in their report, nor do they tell the sex verbally. But I have heard there are methods that will not be interpreted as disclosure of the sex of the fetus. I have heard they perform the ultrasonography, and then the patient is told to take the blessing of the Goddess. The sweet offered as blessing is either a Pedha or a Barfi, both sweets. If it is a Pedha, it is a boy, and if it is a Barfi, it is a girl. Will any court convict a doctor for offering a pedha or a barfi to the patient? I doubt it very much. I don't deny that the Act should be followed to the word. But that is not enough. Instead of finding minor faults in the ultrasonography forms filled by doctors, and making a big issue of registering people and rejecting applications for registration over trivial matters, the machinery should be set up to change the attitudes of the society, to make them understand that a girl is as good as a boy and a female child must not be stopped from being born. The machinery should also actually find out who make such prenatal selection or diagnosis and then punish them severely. The fault lies not in unregistered machines and people, it lies in the hearts of those who make such a request and those who meet the request for a hefty fee.