1 week Ago By Ipsita Pati
Gurgaon: Haryana govt has revoked registrations of 300 abortion centres and initiated action against over a dozen health department officials as part of efforts to improve the state's sex ratio at birth (SRB) and curb any illegal practices. A state task force, formed last month, surveyed all 1,500 centres where medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) was allowed and found that 300 of them did not comply with all norms. These centres did not send weekly data on abortions permitted to the health department, and they did not disclose reasons for allowing termination of pregnancy in some cases, officials said on Thursday.
Registrations of some of the centres were also cancelled because they did not re-register their on-staff gynaecologists after the MTP Act was amended in 2021, they said. Under the amendment, re-registration of doctors working at MTP centres was mandatory. Dr Virender Yadav, director of National Health Mission-Haryana, said action was taken against officials found lax in monitoring banned practices such as female foeticide and pre-natal sex determination.
The Hisar nodal officer (PNDT – pre-natal diagnostic techniques) was suspended on Wednesday, and PNDT nodal officers in five other districts – Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Rohtak and Charkhi Dadri – were replaced due to poor performance. Govt on Thursday also issued show-cause notices to senior medical officers (SMOs) of 12 community health centres (CHCs) for persistently low sex-ratio at birth observed there. These CHCs are in Nahar (Rewari), Tosham (Bhiwani), Danoda (Jind), Kunjpura (Karnal), Tauru (Nuh), Tigaon (Faridabad), Bhattu Kalan (Fatehabad), Ateli (Mahendergarh), Ukalana (Hisar), Badopal (Fatehabad), Nissing (Karnal) and Ladwa (Kurukshetra).
The SMOs have been asked to explain the reasons for low sex-ratio at birth documented in their centres. If their responses are found to be unsatisfactory, govt could initiate police action against them. "The SMOs of three CHCs with the lowest SRB will be charge-sheeted," an official said.
The crackdown comes at a time Haryana's sex ratio at birth (the number of girls born for every 1,000 boys) has seen a decline even though the state has been implementing Centre's campaign -- Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao -- for a decade. Its SRB fell from 916 in 2023 to 910 last year. Officials said SRB has improved to 911 this year, according to the central govt's Civil Registration System (CRS).
Haryana has for decades struggled with a skewed sex ratio, often attributed to practices like female foeticide and a strong preference for boy child. At 834, Haryana's SRB was the lowest among all Indian states when data was studied in the 2011 Census. The state improved its count to 923 by 2019 but started seeing a downward trend thereafter.
Additional chief secretary (health) Sudhir Rajpal last month told the health department to take strict action against any illegal practices and monitor data from MTP centres. The state drug controller was instructed to compile a list of MTP kit wholesalers and ensure that the kits are only sold to registered MTP centres. "Over the past two months, FIRs were registered against 17 online sellers of MTP kits.
In the last three months, 23 PNDT raids were conducted and non-compliant centres were shut down," Yadav said. TOI reported earlier this month that the health department was tasked with tracking the gender ratio of infants born through IVF and following up on abortion requests from couples with two daughters. Officials told TOI on Thursday that 62,000 pregnant women who have one to two daughters have been identified and will be counselled against female foeticide through the state's health helpline (104) launched on March 22.
ASHA (accredited social health activists) workers will be asked to get in touch with these women to guide them through the course of pregnancy. Separately, the state govt has proposed an incentive of Rs 1,000 to the mother for every successful delivery of a girl child..
