Haryana’s fight to save girl child- some suggestions in public interest without getting any remuneration.

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Haryana’s fight to save Girl Child – some suggestions in public interest.
We are struggling for more than 3 decades to improve the skewed gender ratio in the state, latter being root cause of many social problems. PNDT act enforcement has been strict with some success in preventing the decline but has not been able to reverse the trend. It criminalised the gender detection and shifted the onus on medical profession.

There were number of black sheeps in the medical profession who violated the law but society still not changed its mindset. There has been constant debate how best to bring back normal or near normal gender ratios.

What is legal may not be socially acceptable, this a prime example of that. The question is then what is the answer? It’s time to rethink the policy as is done in the advanced countries of Europe/ America and Southeast Asia- the gender is declared at the end of 3months/ ist trimester and is recorded. I witnessed it in my own family. It shifts the onus on family instead of the medical profession as on an average 3 ultrasounds are done in a normal pregnancy.

It is imperative to start discussion on this . We have the technology and each pregnancy can be traced digitally by the health system at grassroots level. Any abortion or lapse can be traced immediately by ASHA workers.

It liberates the medical profession from illegal acts and Ultrasound, a potent weapon in the armaterium of medical profession to manage their patients in real time especially in emergency becomes easily universally available. The moot question is are we ready? I think so , at least to discuss and debate and look for change in policy in future.