Sex determination: Will Maharashtra silence Silent Observer?

The rising opposition to the Silent Observer (SIOB), the sonography machine monitoring device, is puzzling as the Kolhapur district administration’s data shows that the device has helped check the under-reporting of the ultrasound sonography tests of pregnant women.

Recently, a state government-appointed high-level committee to check the success rate of the SIOB did not rate the device highly and noted that the SIOB cannot do much to stop sex determination.

Some days ago, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP, Supriya Sule, had led a delegation of radiologists and gynaecologists to chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, to protest against the government action against sonography and medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) centres in the state.

Sule, who had also undertaken a padyatra over the declining sex ratio, remained silent about action against doctors guilty of sex determination.

Recently, Maharashtra health minister, Suresh Shetty, had said there were drawbacks in the SIOB so they would wait for the results of the improved version. He also said that the government was looking for a better solution with the help of software experts and sonography manufacturers.

According to the Kolhapur district administration, the SIOB has borne wonderful results ever since it was installed in all the registered sonography centres in Kolhapur to check sex determination.

Significantly, the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) had challenged the SIOB in the Bombay high court on the grounds that it violated the right to privacy of the patient and
the sacred doctor-patient
confidentiality.  

However, the HC ruled that the right to life was more important than the right to privacy.

Kolhapur district collector, Laxmikant Deshmukh, told DNA that all these issues related to the drawbacks in the SIOB have been discussed in the HC and have been sorted out.

Prior to SIOB’s installation in Kolhapur, every month about 10,000 sonography tests of pregnant women were reported through the ‘F’ form. However, after SIOB’s installation, the number went up to 15,000 sonography tests per month, suggesting that many tests were not being reported earlier.

While Kolhapur district’s child sex ratio showed marginal improvement from 839 in 2001 to 845 in 2011, the ‘Save the baby girl mission’ was launched in the district in October 2009. The website www.savethebabygirl.com was created for filling the ‘F’ form, which is mandatory and contains the case history and details of pregnant women.

In the second step in May and June 2010, the sonography machines were attached with the SIOB which stores the recorded images of the test.

“After installing the SIOB, the filling of the ‘F’ form has gone up sharply. This highlights the gross under-reporting of the sonography tests of pregnant women in the absence of the deterrent device like SIOB,” said an official related to the project.

The Kolhapur administration downloads the data from 10 to 15 SIOBs every month and checks the information on the ‘F’ forms against the actual sonography tests done. The administration claims that this procedure helps identify the true reason behind an abortion.

Following complaints including those that the SIOB could be easily fooled by disconnecting it during a sonography test, Magnum Opus, the Pune-based firm which developed the SIOB told DNA that they have installed an improved version of the machine with Active Tracker to eliminate drawbacks at two places in Kolhapur.

The company’s managing director, Girish Lad said the Active Tracker cannot be switched on and off manually, but gets automatically switched on when the sonography machine starts working.

The device has a SIM card installed. Any tampering with the device results in an SMS alert being sent to the district collectorate automatically. Besides, the Active Tracker is fitted with the global positioning system (GPS) which helps detect any unauthorised switching off of the machine.

Lad said the radiologists’ allegations of the drawbacks in the SIOB are out of frustration of losing the case in the high court.

Moreover, the company has shown its willingness to hand over the technology to the government.