Her proposal was slammed by Congress leader Shobha Oza who told ANI: “It is a bizarre proposal by Maneka Gandhi ji. On one hand we are trying to save the girl child, we have brought in the PC and PNDT act to ensure we curb female foeticide, on the other hand the minister comes with a bizarre idea.”
Union WCD minister Maneka Gandhi has issued a clarification about her controversial comments about sex determination. She said that her idea about compulsory sex determination, was her ‘point of view’ and not a formal proposal. A statement issued by the ministry said: “Some of the newspapers have reported that the minister referred to a Cabinet proposal about tracking female foeticide and registering the sex of the foetus. This is factually incorrect. What was discussed by the hon’ble minister was that effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act is one of the ways to check falling child sex ratio.”
Currently, the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) Act bans medics from revealing the sex of a foetus. “She said that an alternative point of view is that each pregnancy should be registered and the sex of the fetus, wherever requested for, could be made known to the parents and if the same happens to be a female, the delivery should be tracked and recorded. Such a system would help in ensuring that a fetus is not aborted only because it is a female,” the ministry's statement added.
“It is clarified that hon’ble minister referred to this as a point of view which has often been brought up by stakeholders before the ministry. She had specifically stated that this needs further debate and had asked the media persons to give their suggestions. It is further clarified that there is no formal proposal being considered by the ministry on this issue at this stage," the statement said.
Her proposal was slammed by Congress leader Shobha Oza who told ANI: “It is a bizarre proposal by Maneka Gandhi ji. On one hand we are trying to save the girl child, we have brought in the PC and PNDT act to ensure we curb female foeticide, on the other hand the minister comes with a bizarre idea.”
“In fact, if this happens, the mother has to undergo misconduct from her own family and pressure from her own family to abort girl child from very day one. And this will adversely affect our endure to save girl child,” said Oza who is also the president of All India Mahila Congress.
"In my personal view, the woman should be compulsorily told that whether it is a boy or girl child whom she is going to give birth.It should be registered to be able to check whether they have given the births or not," Maneka Gandhi had said. "I am just putting out this idea. It is being discussed though there is no conclusion yet," she had said at the All India Regional Editors Conference.
'It is a different way to look at this problem (female foeticide), which could be solved with this idea," she added. "We cannot keep catching people doing (illegal) ultrasound," she said, adding that arrest of such people was not a permanent solution.
With inputs from agencies
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