Hyderabad: The unfortunate announcement of the United AP government that sting operations would be conducted at scanning centres to check on the implementation of the PCPNDT Act, seems to have rendered this initiative useless.
The idea was to send in women posing as pregnant women to scanning centres to see if the centres violated the Act by divulging information about the sex of the foetus.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights has released a report stating that the scheme to send in decoys failed because of the prior leaking of information.
The ACHR said, “The sting operations using decoys failed as the appropriate suthorities in certain states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu announced in advance in which districts sting operations would be conducted.
Due to this no sex determination and/or sex selection test could be detected during subsequent sting operations as potential violators of the PC&PNDT Act were alerted in advance.
In 2013, the Medical & Health Department had announced that over 100 trained decoy customers would be sent in to expose the doctors or their staff determining and disclosing the sex of the foetus, with solid evidence in the form of audio and video footage in Guntur district.
In September 2014, in Andhra Pradesh, 5,003 genetic counselling centres or genetic clinics etc were registered, 52 court cases were pending and 132 machines were seized/sealed under the PCPNDT Act. However, no medical licence was suspe-nded/cancelled and no one has ever been convicted.
