Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: A decline in child sex ratio from 953 in 2001 to 934 in 2011 in Odisha has become a cause of concern. Many speakers at a seminar here urged appropriate steps to end the “social malady”.
The Annual Health Survey 2010-11 shows districts such as Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Angul and Ganjam having sex ratio at birth of less than 900. The Odisha government has asked the district collectors to implement the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.
A document of the government at a colloquium on the act here today pointed out that not only the coastal and central districts of Odisha were into sex determination and sex-selective elimination business, but also the tribal districts such as Sundergarh, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput have registered an alarming decline of child ratio ranging from 37 points in Sundergarh to 23 points in Koraput.
Orissa High Court Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, among others, addressed the event organised by the Odisha State Legal Services Authority, Cuttack.
Justice Gowda asked all the district collectors termed the elimination of female foetus after sex determination as “more heinous than murdering an adult”. He also advised the legislative wing of the Odisha administration to confer property rights to the girl child.
The chief minister promised information, education and communication campaigns against sex determination and valuing the girl child in our society.
Angul, a rapidly industrialised district in central Odisha, has registered decline of 50 points than the 2001 annual health survey. District collector Arvind Agarwal said: “During a sting operation a fortnight ago in Talcher, an illegal unit was detected. The administration is trying to stop misuse of technology to detect the foetal sex.”
The decline in Cuttack district is quite high — 28 points. District collector Girish S.N. said that in the past two-and-a-half months, one case has been filed against a clinic, and regarding five ultrasound machines, the respective manufacturers are asked to take back those.
Though Khurda has registered only a 10-point decline in the graph, district collector Roopa Mishra plans to organise a meet of the health care professionals on sensitising the stakeholders on the act within a month. “As the state capital is in Khurda and there are many ultrasound clinics, we need to monitor them at frequent intervals. To bridge the gap between renewal of permission and application by the clinics to the district authorities, we are going to introduce an online system,” she said.
Director of the National Rural Health Mission (Odisha) Pramod Meherda said: “The mission has detected particular blocks at district levels where the situation is quite bad. We are going to map them to know the trend. Some districts such as Boudh, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Puri and Nuapada have shown an increase in the sex ratio,” he said.