Trackers on ultrasound machines in 3 districts

Pratibha Chauhan

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 30

Keen to arrest the declining child sex ratio, Himachal has launched a pilot project of installing GPS-enabled active tracking devices in ultrasound machines in the three border districts of Una, Kangra and Hamirpur, which are the worst-hit.

The project will be extended to other parts of the state later. The trackers have been installed on all ultrasound machines both in private as well as government hospitals. There are a total of 276 ultrasound machines in the private sector while 86 government health institutions have the facility.

“We are serious about ensuring that there is no illegal sex determination tests so all ultrasound machines in Una, Kangra and Hamirpur have been installed with tracking devices,” said Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur. He said the record of all ultrasound scans was available with the Chief Medical Officer, thereby enabling proper record of all pregnancies.

The system of installing the tracker device has been started in parts of Madhya Pradesh by the government despite opposition from the Association of Radiologists. Some doctors from Himachal had already undergone training at Indore to use these trackers and keep a record of the machine. The cost of each tracker device is about Rs 30,000.

The overall sex ratio of Himachal as per the 2011 census is 909, with Una having the lowest figure of 875, followed by 876 in Kangra, 887 in Hamirpur, 899 in Solan and 900 in Bilaspur. The highest ratio is in Lahaul-Spiti at 1,033 followed by 963 in Kinnaur. In fact, the low child sex ratio in Una, where 24 blocks had below 500 figure, had even attracted the attention of the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court.

The problem is more grave in the districts bordering Punjab and Haryana. The government had in the past ordered tracking of all pregnancies, births and child immunisation record in the entire state during the last one year to be able to identify the gaps and to get to the root cause of the problem of the declining child sex ratio, especially in the border areas.

Himachal had even written to Punjab to check illegal ultrasound machines and such clinics operating in its area in the border towns like Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Nangal, Panchkula and Ropar.

Punjab, Haryana and Himachal had even agreed to enhance the reward amount for any tip-off on cases of female foeticide from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh and at the same time step up information sharing so that illegal termination of pregnancies could be checked through sting operations. The three states have also given their consent for allowing undertaking sting operations in each of the three states without the necessary permission of the local health and police authorities.