Thursday, September 4, 2008

PCPNDT Act

PCPNDT Act -Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act

“It is unfortunate that for one reason or the other, the practice
of female infanticide still prevails despite the fact that the gentle
touch of a daughter and her voice has soothing effect on the
parents.”

Four years since the Supreme Court has made the abovementioned observation, the situation remains grim and this is reflected in the overall sex ratio in various states where female infanticide still prevails. However, the traditional system of killing the girl child after her birth has now given way to the more modern techniques of sex selection and female foeticide.

PNDT Act passed by the Indian Parliament came into force in 1994 for regulation and prevention of misuse of the diagnostic techniques.
Subsequently, following a Supreme court order on its proper implementation certain amendments were made to the Act. The declining sex ratio in India particularly in the 0-6 year age group is a matter of grave concern. It was expected that proper implementation of the PCPNDT Act would check the pre-natal sex determination and elimination of the female foetus within the womb at least to some extent. However, although there has been ample time for implementing the Act, there is no sign that the decline in child sex ratio has been halted. Most states have set up the infrastructure prescribed in the Act, but this infrastructure is still to be effective.

A study of the census reports of 1991 and 2001 shows that the situation has worsened in most parts of India. The census 2001 further reveals that the situation is far worse in respect of Girl child population in the age group of 0-6, particularly in the affluent areas of Punjab (793 girls to 1000 boys), Haryana (820), Chandigarh (845), Himachal Pradesh (897) and Delhi (865).

Amendment was needed as Some TechnoDocs and others who wanted to have just male child have misused the term PRENATAL..!!

For more details download

http://ncw.nic.in/PNDT%20conference.pdf

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