Brinda Karat, Secretary, All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) expressed the view that the present Sex Determination Act was one of the worst Acts in the country and said it reflected on certain privileges of the medical fraternity. Addressing a workshop on “Sex determination and female foeticide,” at Nellore on Sunday, she was highly critical of the medical fraternity and said certain lobbies in the profession tried to protect the profit motive rather than ethics.
Stating that the Act in the present form protected the privileges of the profession, Karat cited an example and said that at a meeting held at Rohtak in Haryana two weeks ago, some doctors even wanted judicial powers with regard to ultrasonography which was used for sex determination tests and wanted the district chief medical officers to be empowered with such powers.
Karat alleged that the Medical Council of India (MCI) had been protecting those who go out of their boundaries. “Instead of profit motive one should give priority to social responsibility,” she said.
Karat pointed out that the highest rate of decline in female sex ratio was in states like Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat where economic standards were higher. Sex determination tests in the above states had led to 'elimination of women', she said.
Karat, who is a member of the CPI-M's central committee, expressed concern at the politics behind sex determination which often supported unethical practices. Even in the USA, she said the law for equal wage for equal work was yet to be implemented fully. According to a survey done by AIDWA, the landlords in AP stand to lose nearly Rs 2,500 crore every year if they paid full wages to women labourers.
Anitha Shenoy, an advocate of the Supreme Court, explained the salient features of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Technologies (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.