Female foeticide or selective sex abortion is widely prevalent in Tamilnadu, even in urban centres like Chennai. According to the statistics available with the Campaign Against Sex-Selective Abortion (CASSA) and the Tamilnadu Directorate of Public Health, only 906 girls are born in Chennai in comparison to every 1000 boys, and the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) is only 100:103 during the 2002-03 period. This is way below the natural or biologically accepted SRB of 971 girls against 1000 boys.
During the period, 41,833 boys were born against 37, 920 girls in Chennai. The figures also reveal the male-female ratio in the state has declined marginally in the last four decades, from 995 women per 1000 men in 1961 to 939 women per 1000 men in 2001. The juvenile sex ratio (aged up to 6 years) of the state has also gone down marginally over the years, only at 927 per 1000 in 2001.
CASSA sources note that drastic fall in the SRB is enough to suspect secret selective abortion prevailing in even urban centres like Chennai, as there are no scientific evidences or theories to explain the phenomenon of less number in birth of girls. However, the CASSA activists working in the field say that an effective monitoring mechanism is necessary to track and book the people involved in this.
CASSA suggests that it is a must to enforce strict monitoring of scan centres in the city, besides conducting micro level studies. It is necessary to unearth and break the unholy nexus between the illegal scan or genetic counseling centres and the doctors who refer people to these centres.
For this, all the ultrasound or chromosomal typing referrals have to be brought under the provisions of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT Act), so that the authorities can monitor the units. Constitution of advisory committees in all districts and multiple authorities are necessary to speed up registration of scan centres and genetic counseling centres in the state, instead of the existing centralized system of registering with the office in Chennai, suggests CASSA.
CASSA also suggests to strictly implementing the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act along with the TNDA Act, as the state has about 2000 licensed centres. The authority should strictly submit the report on implementation of the Act to the Central Supervisory Board every three months to monitor the progress of implementation.