New Delhi October 7:
Punjab has become the first state to opt for unique indigenously developed ultrasound tracking technology to prevent sex selection and protect the girl child.
The state has invited tenders for procurement of the device and these will soon be opened to procure 1300 machines for 1200 sonography centres. “We will be opening the tenders soon. We want 1300 devices for 1200 centres. We are deciding whether to install the devices in one or two phases,” outgoing principal Secretary, Health, Punjab Satish Chandra told The Tribune. Punjab’s child sex ratio is 846, the second lowest in India.
Called Active Tracker, the technology which involves embedding each ultrasound machine with a device that captures and stores images of each sonography test conducted on a pregnant woman, has helped Kolhapur district authorities improve the reporting of ultrasounds by 34 per cent. Hitherto, the doctor-patient nexus was leading to massive underreporting of sonography tests being done on women for the purpose of sex selection. Radiologists, who are supposed to fill F forms for each ultrasound test and store data for two years, were violating the laws and entering false data.
“We found several instances of false reporting where doctors would understate the age of the foetus to enable medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for sex selection. Under the law, a doctor need not mention the gender of a foetus under 12 weeks of age. Several doctors were understating foetal age to allow the MTP for sex selection whereas in the F form they would say they allowed the same for medical reasons. Once we fitted each ultrasound machine in all 250 centres with the Silent Observer device whose improved version is called Active Tracker, we could cross check the information in F form with the images in the ultrasound test.
Doctors could no longer lie to us,” Laxmikant Deshmukh, District Collector, Kolhapur, told reporters. The device worked wonders. Kolhapur’s child sex ratio went up from 839 per 1000 boys in May 2010 to 876 in January 2011. Such was the social impact of the innovation that the Bombay High Court recently ruled in favour of Kolhapur DM in a case where the Radiologists Association of Maharashtra had challenged the use of the device on the grounds of invasion of privacy. Punjab, which had invited tenders for the machine earlier this year, was awaiting the HC’s ruling. Chandra said, “Now that the court has ruled in favour of the device, we can go ahead.”
Punjab had decided to procure this device after former health minister Laxmikanta Chawla personally visited Maharashtra to check it out. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry, in its affidavit to the High Court supported the use of Silent Observer, saying, “Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act, 1994, appropriate authorities, DCs in this case, have the discretion to facilitate mechanisms to check illegal sex determination, including innovations like the Silent Observer.”
Punjab has become the first state to opt for unique indigenously developed ultrasound tracking technology to prevent sex selection and protect the girl child.
The state has invited tenders for procurement of the device and these will soon be opened to procure 1300 machines for 1200 sonography centres. “We will be opening the tenders soon. We want 1300 devices for 1200 centres. We are deciding whether to install the devices in one or two phases,” outgoing principal Secretary, Health, Punjab Satish Chandra told The Tribune. Punjab’s child sex ratio is 846, the second lowest in India.
Called Active Tracker, the technology which involves embedding each ultrasound machine with a device that captures and stores images of each sonography test conducted on a pregnant woman, has helped Kolhapur district authorities improve the reporting of ultrasounds by 34 per cent. Hitherto, the doctor-patient nexus was leading to massive underreporting of sonography tests being done on women for the purpose of sex selection. Radiologists, who are supposed to fill F forms for each ultrasound test and store data for two years, were violating the laws and entering false data.
“We found several instances of false reporting where doctors would understate the age of the foetus to enable medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for sex selection. Under the law, a doctor need not mention the gender of a foetus under 12 weeks of age. Several doctors were understating foetal age to allow the MTP for sex selection whereas in the F form they would say they allowed the same for medical reasons. Once we fitted each ultrasound machine in all 250 centres with the Silent Observer device whose improved version is called Active Tracker, we could cross check the information in F form with the images in the ultrasound test.
Doctors could no longer lie to us,” Laxmikant Deshmukh, District Collector, Kolhapur, told reporters. The device worked wonders. Kolhapur’s child sex ratio went up from 839 per 1000 boys in May 2010 to 876 in January 2011. Such was the social impact of the innovation that the Bombay High Court recently ruled in favour of Kolhapur DM in a case where the Radiologists Association of Maharashtra had challenged the use of the device on the grounds of invasion of privacy. Punjab, which had invited tenders for the machine earlier this year, was awaiting the HC’s ruling. Chandra said, “Now that the court has ruled in favour of the device, we can go ahead.”
Punjab had decided to procure this device after former health minister Laxmikanta Chawla personally visited Maharashtra to check it out. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry, in its affidavit to the High Court supported the use of Silent Observer, saying, “Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act, 1994, appropriate authorities, DCs in this case, have the discretion to facilitate mechanisms to check illegal sex determination, including innovations like the Silent Observer.”
![[JUGRAJ SINGH]](https://www.unp.me/data/avatars/s/123/123038.jpg?1591210006){kind=avatar}