Third child of most couples male: Data

Dinesh Kanwar

Hamirpur, March 4

The failure of the Health Department to ensure strict implementation of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act has resulted in several ultra-sound centres undertaking sex determination tests in blatant violation of norms.

It is evident from the data collected by the district administration and the Health Department. It reveals that the third child of a majority of the couples is a male child.

Sources from the department said the data is a clear indication of the fact that there was practically no check on pre-natal sex determination tests.

The data is also in complete contradiction of the Save Girl Child campaign being implemented in the state. It was learnt that many couples having two girl children went ahead with the third pregnancy only if the child was male, failing which they opted for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP).

Sources in the department said the data revealed that “in almost 100 per cent cases, the third child happened to be a male child”. Notably, the child sex ratio in the district has shown a minor improvement as it increased from 881 girls in 2011 to 917 in 2014 against 1,000 boys.

However, in some of the villages, it had shown a negative growth. A medical expert said the ultra-sound facility was introduced to check the health of the embryo and termination was advised only in case an abnormal development was observed, but people and medical practitioners started using this facility to make huge profits. He said this practice could not be curtailed until there was a change in how people thought. Rohan Chand Thakur, DC, said the data revealed that there was a trend of the MTP after having two girl children. He said in most cases, after two girl children, the third child born was male, which could not be possible without pre-natal sex determination.