WUNRN
INDIA
- GOVERNMENT TO DISCONTINUE PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTIC SCHEME & PASS
RESPONSIBILITY TO STATES
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17th January 2014 - Passing the responsibility to the states, the India UPA National Government has decided to discontinue the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) NGO scheme on the pretext of decentralising activities under the programme.
Interestingly, the decision of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to decentralise the scheme came few months before the completion of the UPA-II Government. Now the ministry has advised the state governments that they are at the liberty to propose schemes for enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, including grants to NGO’s in their project implementation plans (PIPs). The ministry also suggested that states should select the district where the child sex ratio is very low and may initiate the scheme in such districts.
The ministry has evolved the guidelines for operationalisation of the scheme by the states and has sent them to the governments concerned. It has asked the states to disseminate the decision to all concerned, including the civil society members and take appropriate follow up action to include funds requirement in PIP for 2014-15 onwards.
The civil societies and the NGOs have been playing crucial role in fighting against the evil of selective abortions through generating awareness among communities.
Grant-in-aid to the NGOs for awareness generation was a Centre-sponsored scheme. Now it has been decided to decentralise the whole system and states have been asked to propose engagement of the NGOs for IEC on PC and PNDT Act in state PIPs.
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INDIA - SUPREME GUIDELINES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION OF PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTICS ACT
March 4, 2013 - The Supreme Court laid down the guidelines for the strict implementation of the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Act (PNDT) and directed the central supervisory board and the state supervisory boards to hold a meeting once in six months to ensure the provisions of the Act are not breached.
“The decline in the female child ratio all over the country leads to an irresistible conclusion that the practice of eliminating female foetus by the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques is widely prevalent in this country,” said a bench of Justice KS Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra while issuing the guidelines. The court gave all the states and Centre to file a status report within three months.
The advisory committees have been directed to seize records, seal machines and institute legal proceedings if they notice any violation of the Act. On confirming the breach, the advisory committees should inform state medical councils and seek cancellation of the errant doctor’s licence to practice and suspension of the registration of the ultrasound clinic.
“The authorities should ensure also that all genetic counselling centres, genetic laboratories and genetic clinics, infertility clinics, scan centres etc. using preconception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques and procedures should maintain all records and all forms, required to be maintained under the Act and the rules and the duplicate copies of the same be sent to the concerned district authorities, in accordance with Rule 9(8) of the Rules,” the bench ordered.
Advisory boards have also been directed to ensure that all manufacturers and sellers of ultra-sonography machines do not sell any machine to any unregistered centre and a list of persons to whom machines have been sold should be prepared on quarterly basis and sent to the respective state government and the Centre.
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