New Delhi, April 28: Manmohan Singh today spoke to the country not as the Prime Minister but as the “proud father of three daughters” seeking to stir a nation’s conscience.

Describing the bias against girls and women prevalent in India as a shame, he called for societal action and stricter enforcement of laws against sex determination and female foeticide.

Addressing a national meeting on the girl child, Singh said no nation, society or community could hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilised world if it condoned the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity.

“Action must begin at home, in our families, in our communities,” Singh said. “I do not say this as Prime Minister of India. I say this as the proud father of three daughters. I wish for every girl in our country what I wish for my own daughters,” he said.

The meeting, organised by the ministry of health, reviewed states’ implementation of a law that bans sex selection and prenatal sex determination. Health officials estimate that about 2,000 female foetuses are aborted every day in India after parents, colluding with unscrupulous doctors, learn about the sex of the foetus.

Singh described female foeticide as an “inhuman, uncivilised and reprehensible practice” and called for strict enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act.

“We are an ancient civilisation and we call ourselves a modern nation. And yet, we live with the ignominy of an adverse gender balance due to social discrimination against women,” he said.

India’s child sex ratio dropped from 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991 to 927 girls in 2001. In some of the richer states, the ratio has dropped to the 800s and 700s.

“This indicates that growing economic prosperity and education levels have not led to a corresponding mitigation of the problem,” Singh said. “We need multi-pronged societal action to address the contributing factors in the predicament of the Indian girl,” he added.

“We need to strengthen legislative enforcement, basic healthcare and nutrition and re-orient national literacy and school education to give greater focus to women and girl children,” Singh said. “We need to mobilise leaders of civil society, particularly religious leaders, for a nationwide campaign to end all types of discrimination against women built into our societal structures.”

Although sting operations by NGOs and government authorities over the past three years have helped build cases against more than 400 clinics or doctors involved in sex tests, health officials have admitted that the rate of conviction is “dismal”.

Only about 20 doctors or institutions have been convicted or penalised so far, Pravir Krishn, joint secretary in the health ministry, said.

Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said his ministry has proposed amendments to the existing act designed to improve the rate of conviction.

Under one of the proposed amendments, likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament this year, district magistrates, instead of chief medical officers, would be authorised to investigate and build cases against clinics or doctors violating the act.

Health officials are hoping district magistrates would be able to build a tighter and stronger cases against violators than medical officers who are doctors themselves.

Another proposed amendment would allow only gynaecologists, obstetricians and radiologists with appropriate training to conduct ultrasound imaging — the technology being abused for sex determination of foetuses.

Health officials have said there is evidence that some medical practitioners, even technicians, have “overnight” changed their discipline to fulfil the demand for sex determination.