In the campaign against sex selective Abortion, a Chennai-based non government organisation, Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CSSA), has decided to keep a constant vigil against the misuse of foetal sex determination techniques by clinics across the state.

A state-level consultation on the role of political parties and mass organisations to improve the child sex ratio in favour of girls, held here yesterday under the auspices of the NGO, decided to take various steps in this regard including finding out the clinics where ultrasound technology was being 'misused' for foetal sex determination.

It was also decided to locate all ultrasound clinics in various areas, ensure that they were registered, inspect clinics to examine scan data, identify any advertisements for sex determination and selection, investigate functioning of mobile ultrasound machines units operating in various areas and initiate dialogues with medical associations to motivate them to be pro-active in stopping sex determination.

It was pointed out at the consultation that the child sex ratio for Tamil Nadu which was 995 girls for every 1,000 boys in 1961 had declined to 948 in 1991 and further dropped to 939 in 2001.

The participants expressed concern that medical technologies were being misused to find out the sex of the foetus and new technologies were being developed to select the sex of the child even before conception and to do away with girls.