AHMEDABAD — With Gujarat earning the dubious distinction of having the fourth lowest sex ratio in India, the state government has resorted to stringent measures to check female infanticide.

Doctors will now have to certify that the medical waste being disposed off by their hospitals, does not contain traces of aborted female foetuses. Health department officials have been conducting successful sting operations to nab ‘greedy’ gynaecologists. They will conduct random checks of the daily trash being discarded by hospitals. Professional agencies, clearing the medical waste, will also be told to ‘keep their eyes open’.

Health Minister Ashok Bhatt told a meeting of top law and medical experts that doctors prescribing abortion tablets, had been asked to maintain a register to keep an account of every tablet and patient under their treatment to check misuse of the drug and other similar injections for medical termination of pregnancy.

The authorities had received several complaints that a tablet that actually costs Rs10 to Rs15 was being sold for Rs200 by unregistered chemists.

In an earlier drive against gender detection of the foetus, 141 sonography machines had been seized and 28 doctors caught red-handed, were booked for violation of the Pre-natal diagnostic technique Act.

According to the minister, compared to the rural areas, the sex ratio was lower in Gujarat’s urban centres. For example, some localities in Ahmedabad had only 650 girls for every 1,000 boys born.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, he said: “Hospitals also have been directed to send reports of births and deaths of infants.”