Haryana registers 32 FIRs in July for illegal abortions, arrests 32

Haryana has registered 32 FIRs in July for illegal abortions and arrested 32 persons. This fact came to light during the weekly meeting of the State Task Force (STF) for improving sex ratio today. During the meeting, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Sudhir Rajpal, emphasised the need for stringent enforcement against illegal abortions, instructing officials to take punitive measures, including revoking the licenses of doctors found complicit.

He said the state is implementing reverse tracking of all Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) and abortion cases beyond 12 weeks, particularly where women already have one or more daughters. In July alone, 32 FIRs were registered in suspected reverse tracking cases, leading to 32 arrests. Additionally, FIRs are under process in four more cases, and 38 notices have been issued to private hospitals and clinics for suspected violations.

The Additional Chief Secretary directed that the transgender community be actively involved in celebrating the birth of girls across the state. As part of this effort, members of the transgender community will visit the homes where a girl child is born — just as they traditionally do when a boy takes birth — and present a certificate of Rs 21,000 invested with the LIC under the ‘Aapki Beti Hamari Beti’ scheme to the family of the girl child.

For this, the Haryana Government will also incentivise the transgender community, and a minimum amount of Rs 1,100 is proposed to be given to such transgenders. The entire campaign will be run under the supervision of the concerned Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the district.

The Additional Chief Secretary also ordered a crackdown against IVF centres involved in sex-determination tests and illegal abortion practices. It was decided that all implantations through IVF must be registered under Antenatal Care (ANC) for improved surveillance. He also asked the police department to actively coordinate with the Health Department teams for tracking illegal abortion centres and arresting the culprits, while also seeking a report on the progress achieved in the FIRs filed so far by next week.

The Woman and Child Development Department informed that an awareness advertisement on the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ campaign is being produced and will soon be aired in cinema halls across the state. The meeting highlighted that the government’s efforts have yielded encouraging results — from January 1 to July 31 this year, the state’s sex ratio has improved to 907, up from 899 during the corresponding period last year.