India – Government to Discontinue Pre-Natal Diagnostic Scheme & Pass on to States
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 22, 2005
WUNRN
INDIA
– GOVERNMENT TO DISCONTINUE PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTIC SCHEME & PASS
RESPONSIBILITY TO STATES
By
17th January 2014 – Passing the
responsibility to the states, the India UPA National Government has decided to
discontinue the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) NGO scheme on the
pretext of decentralising activities under the programme.
Interestingly, the decision of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to
decentralise the scheme came few months before the completion of the UPA-II
Government. Now the ministry has advised the state governments that
they are at the liberty to propose schemes for enforcement of the
Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, including
grants to NGO’s in their project implementation plans (PIPs). The ministry also
suggested that states should select the district where the child sex ratio is
very low and may initiate the scheme in such districts.
The ministry has evolved the guidelines for operationalisation of the scheme
by the states and has sent them to the governments concerned. It has asked the
states to disseminate the decision to all concerned, including the civil
society members and take appropriate follow up action to include funds
requirement in PIP for 2014-15 onwards.
The civil societies and the NGOs have been playing crucial role in fighting
against the evil of selective abortions through generating awareness among
communities.
Grant-in-aid to the NGOs for awareness generation was a Centre-sponsored
scheme. Now it has been decided to decentralise the whole system and
states have been asked to propose engagement of the NGOs for IEC on PC and PNDT
Act in state PIPs.
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VS.
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INDIA – SUPREME GUIDELINES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION OF PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTICS ACT
March 4, 2013 – The Supreme Court laid down the
guidelines for the strict implementation of the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Act
(PNDT) and directed the central supervisory board and the state supervisory
boards to hold a meeting once in six months to ensure the provisions of the Act
are not breached.
“The decline in the female child ratio all over the country leads to an
irresistible conclusion that the practice of eliminating female foetus by the
use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques is widely prevalent in this country,”
said a bench of Justice KS Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra while issuing
the guidelines. The court gave all the states and Centre to file a status
report within three months.
The advisory committees have been directed to seize records, seal machines
and institute legal proceedings if they notice any violation of the Act. On
confirming the breach, the advisory committees should inform state medical
councils and seek cancellation of the errant doctor’s licence to practice and
suspension of the registration of the ultrasound clinic.
“The authorities should ensure also that all genetic counselling centres,
genetic laboratories and genetic clinics, infertility clinics, scan centres
etc. using preconception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques and procedures
should maintain all records and all forms, required to be maintained under the
Act and the rules and the duplicate copies of the same be sent to the concerned
district authorities, in accordance with Rule 9(8) of the Rules,” the bench
ordered.
Advisory boards have also been directed to ensure that all manufacturers and
sellers of ultra-sonography machines do not sell any machine to any
unregistered centre and a list of persons to whom machines have been sold
should be prepared on quarterly basis and sent to the respective state government
and the Centre.
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