Soon after her statement on steps to curb female foeticide generated a debate, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi issued a clarification.
In a statement her office said, "Some of the newspapers have reported that the Minister referred to a Cabinet proposal about tracking female foeticide and registering the sex of the foetus. This is factually incorrect. What was discussed by the Minister was that effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act is one of the ways to check falling child sex ratio."
She also said that an alternative point of view is that each pregnancy should be registered and the sex of the foetus, wherever requested for, could be made known to the parents and if the same happens to be a female, the delivery should be tracked and recorded. According to her, such a system would help in ensuring that a foetus is not aborted only because it is a female.
Her office stated that the Minister referred to the proposal as a point of view which has often been brought up by stakeholders before the Ministry. "She had specifically stated that this needs further debate and had asked the media persons to give their suggestions. There is no formal proposal being considered by the Ministry on this issue at this stage. Ministry is open to suggestions and feedback," Maneka's office said.
At a function in Jaipur, Maneka had said, "In my personal view, the woman should be compulsorily told that whether it is a boy or girl child whom she is going to give birth. It should be registered to be able to check whether they have given the births or not."
"I am just putting out this idea. It is being discussed though there is no conclusion yet," she said adding that it is a different way to look at this problem of female foeticide which could be solved with this idea.
"We cannot keep catching people doing (illegal) ultrasound," she said, adding that arrest of such people was not a permanent solution.
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