post news network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 21: Some medical centres are using ultrasound units to determine the sex of the foetus, which is a crime that needs to be stopped, according to Rupa Mishra, the mission director in the state of the National Health Mission at meeting of the state supervisory board on Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PC & PNDT) Act Wednesday with the state health department at the secretariat.
“We discussed this issue as it leads to serious imbalance in male-female child ratio. Proposals have been given for strengthening squads in district hospitals and providing additional manpower for independent squads to curb the practice,” said Mishra.
“There will be one-coordinator in each district for ensuring the effective implementation of the act,” she said.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of the decreasing sex ratio in the state, which has become a cause of concern. The ratio, which was 953 girls to every 1000 boys in the state during the 2001 census, declined to 941 in 2011.