Actor Aamir Khan whose first episode Satyamev Jayate focused on the issue of sex selective abortions, will be happy to hear this. The Maharashtra government has decided to crack the whip and has urged the Union health ministry to treat the act of sex selective abortions as “murder” by making it punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to Section 302 of IPC, whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine. In their recent communication to the health ministry, the state government of Maharashtra has proposed the government to treat the act of sex selective abortions as murder by way of making amendments to the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (prohibition of sex selection) Act, 1994.
The Maharashtra government has cited that the amendments to the existing Act will create more fear. While, the health ministry is yet to take a call on the proposal, the PC&PNDT Act provides for the prohibition of sex selection, before and after conception and for regulation of prenatal diagnostic techniques. “The proposal was received on August 14 2012 from the state government of Maharashtra,” said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MOS, ministry of health and family welfare.
The health ministry had intensified its drive against female foeticide through effective implementation of the act after Census, 2011, showed that girl child was still unwanted. In fact, the census 2011 found that girl child population had fallen to an all-time low since Independence. The sex ratio for 2011 stands at 914 girls down from 927 girls for 1,000 boys in 2001.
A senior health ministry official said Maharashtra is following the existing act quite well. In 2011, the state recorded highest number of convicted cases against doctors at 15, followed by Haryana (7) and Madhya Pradesh (2). Over all, 21 clinics and 22 doctors were convicted under the act during the same period.
Maharashtra also made an exception as far as punishment for the wrong-doer goes.