The Karnataka government on Thursday, December 14, announced a slew of measures to put an end to female foeticide, including amending the legislation concerned to make it more effective, formulating a new policy and setting up a State-level task force.
Announcing this while replying to members cutting across party affiliations who expressed concern over the increasing cases of female foeticide, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said the above measures would be in addition to the CID probe that has already been ordered. He said amendments to the legislation concerned would be effected in consultation with the Health and Law Department.
The government would also come out with a policy to prevent female foeticide while the proposed State-level task force would help in swiftly acting against any violations, he noted. He was also considering setting up sub-division level monitoring committees besides deploying an ACP to deal exclusively with cases of female foeticide, he said.
The minister announced that the call centre for the health department which would resume from next month would also cater to instances of female foeticides.
The District Health Officers (DHOs) had been told to take up decoy operations once in three months to identify hospitals involved in female foeticides, he noted.
Describing female foeticide as a social taboo, the minister stressed the need for creating social awareness against this. He argued that all those indulging in it, including doctors as well as the mother, should face punishment as a deterrent.
Opposition demands SIT probe
Earlier, the Opposition members led by Leader of the Opposition R. Ashok demanded an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the episode of female foeticides.
Referring to the government ordering a CID probe into it, Mr. Ashok argued that such a probe would take a long time to reach conclusion. Instead, handing over the case to an SIT would help in completing the probe at the earliest, he maintained.
He expressed concern that female foeticides had made the society hang its head in shame, and added that stringent punishment like death penalty should be given to those indulging in such activities.
Pointing out that such female foeticides were being taken up in unhygienic conditions in dingy places like jaggery crushing units in Mandya by non-medical experts, he expressed concern about the health of mothers who underwent the process.
Skewed gender ratio
Female foeticides were affecting the gender ratio, he said, while pointing out that the population of women per 1,000 men had come down from 1,029 in 2015-16 to 797 in 2019-20 in Davanagere and 928 to 781 in the same period in Ramanagara.
Congress MLA from Hoskote Sharat Bachhe Gowda expressed concern that the raid by Health Department on a private hospital in Hoskote on Wednesday had found a five-month old female foetus at the operation theater. He expressed concern over the continuation of such a trend
