Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act

Monday, 5 October 2020
Shobha Shukla

...so goes an old common blessing given to an Indian bride, talks of gender equality notwithstanding. While the small family norm slogan of 'hum do, hamare do' (we two, ours two) has rubbed in well the penchant for begetting at least one son has not waned.

Many modern Indian women find their womanhood incomplete without begetting a son. I know of several highly educated and professionally qualified young Indian women who heaved a sigh of relief and smug satisfaction on having a boy as their first or second born. A complete Indian family is envisaged as one with two kids- at least one of who ought be a son.

Continued: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2010/S00031/may-you-be-the-mother-of-many-sons.htm

Dec 01, 2016 20:06 IST
by P Srinivasan, Hindustan Times

Ingenuity is often the hallmark of cheats. In Rajasthan, unscrupulous medical practitioners, looking to make a quick buck, have gone a step further by duping pregnant women to undergo abortions after telling them that they are carrying a girl child despite the foetus being a male.

“It is perhaps the mother of all frauds,” points out Naveen Jain, head of Rajasthan’s Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) bureau of investigation, and mission director of National Health Mission.

Though sex determination is illegal, the practice is rampant is Rajasthan where a male child is still preferred over a girl by many would-be parents. In a state notorious for its skewed child sex ratio — 888 girls for every 1,000 boys as against the national average of 919, as per the 2011 census — some make a quick buck by offering medical termination services in seedy clinics.

[continued at link]
Source: Hindustan Times

Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act

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