Illegal sex determination rackets are back as sonography device goes portable

In what may jeopardize the state's fight against sex determination and female foeticide, illegal portable sonography machines are being used to determine the sex of the foetus. What's more, officials reveal, these doctors may be conning their 'patients', who usually hail from the lower socio-economic strata, by falsely passing off the male foetus as a female one so that they can make a cut by recommending an abortion.

The Solapur rural police have busted an illegal sex determination racket and arrested seven persons, including four doctors, for allegedly conducting these tests. In July 2015, the Kolhapur police had detected a similar racket which operated using a China-made portable, unregistered sonography machine.

Health department officials and activists admit that more such machines, which are sourced from neighbouring states and countries, may be in use in Maharashtra.

The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act aims at preventing pre-natal sex determination. Mostly, the families go in for sex determination to have a child of their preference, thanks to regressive social practices like dowry and preference for male child. The intensity of the problem can be gauged from the health department's estimates that considering the average expected sex ratio of 952 and the child sex ratio of 883 in the 2011 census, Maharashtra may have seen around 4,68,680 female foeticides between 2001 and 2011, including 30,116 in Mumbai.

Inspector Dayanand Gawade of the Pandharpur taluka police station told dna that a raid was conducted in Anavali village, based on a tip-off, during which doctors were found with a portable sonography machine and laptop.

"These doctors are ayurveda or homeopathy practitioners, and not qualified to conduct these tests. Even then, they charge around Rs 10,000 for these procedures," said Gawade, adding that eventually, seven persons, including four doctors – Hanumant More of Malshiras in Solapur, Tushar Gade and Milan Sawant from Mhaswad in Satara and Vijay Salvi from Mangalwedha in Solapur – were arrested.

Salvi allegedly conducted an abortion on a woman diagnosed carrying a female foetus by the trio. "They used to conduct these tests anywhere, be it vehicles or houses," he noted.

"The accused have links in Satara, parts of Pune like Indapur and Solapur," said Gawade, adding this seemed to be in operation for the last few years. "The roots seem to go deep, and more arrests are likely," he revealed.

Activist Varsha Deshpande of the Lek Ladki Abhiyaan, a member of the Centre's national inspection and monitoring committee, said that there was a proliferation of these illegal portable sonography machines in Maharashtra for sex determination. "The machines are of China make," said Deshpande adding that some had purchased them at a trade fair in Delhi.

"Registration is mandatory for manufacturers and dealers of sonography machines and purchases have to be made from them… portable machines can be used only within hospital premises," said a senior state health department official, adding that however, portable, unregistered machines in illegal circulation could have been sourced from abroad or from neighbouring states where rules were not stringently followed.

"Technology is making our task difficult," the official said, adding that the practice was "alarming." The department has asked officials to look out for this illegality.

Maha's sex ratio on decline

Maharashtra's general sex ratio declined from 934 in 1991 to 922 in 2001 but marginally rose to 925 in 2011. In contrast, India's sex ratio has increased from 927 in 1991 to 933 in 2011 and 940 in 2011. The state's child sex ratio (ratio of girls to boys between zero to six years) has fallen from 946 in 1991 to 913 in 2001 and 883 in 2011 as against 914 in 2011, 927 in 2001 and 946 in 1991 for India.