The government has identified taluks where sex-ration is less than the State’s average. Besides that, officials had collected data of hospitals where only male children took birth.
| Photo Credit: ARUN SANKAR
The technical advances in illegal sex determination of foetus has become a hurdle in stopping incidents of female foeticide, according to Karnataka’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Responding to a question by BJP member C.T. Ravi in the Legislative Council in Belagavi on December 16, the Minister said that recently portal ultrasound scanning machines had come to the market. “People involved in the illegal activity use the portable devices. It is difficult to keep track of them and take action in such cases,” he said.
The officers had identified taluks where sex-ration was less than the State’s average. Besides that, the officers had collected data of hospitals where only male children took birth. “In many cases, oral medicine is prescribed for termination of pregnancy. Such medicine are being sold across the counter. We are working out strategies to tackle the incidents,” he said.
More stringent laws
Mr. Ravi suggested strengthening the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994, so that the accused lose licence to practice. “In three cases of female foeticide reported in Karnataka, the accused include government officials. The doctors, if suspended from service, will continue to practice. The law should be strengthened so that the accused lose their licence,” he said.
Responding to this, Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the spread of awareness against female foeticide was more important. “In Kerala, the sex ratio is high, because there people do not go for either sex determination or female foeticide. Hence, we need to prepare society against such practice,” he added.
Published – December 17, 2025 09:48 am IST
