The State Health Department is going to introduce the Informer Scheme so as to strengthen its drives against female foeticide. Health Secretary and Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) State appropriate authority Naveen Jain said that the department has begun a crackdown on unregistered institutions and people involved in illegal abortions.
He also stated that in the upcoming PCPNDT state supervisory board meeting, a proposal will be submitted to give money to the informers who provide information about illegal abortions. Currently, the informer and decoy pregnant woman are paid INR 1 Lakhs each while the person accompanying the woman gets INR 50,000.
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Talking about the legal action on female foeticide, Mr. Jain said that PCPNDT Bureau of Investigation was formed in 2012ad was given powers to act against sex determination, illegal abortion under the criminal procedure code and Indian Penal code. A total of 124 decoy operations have been conducted since 2009 and in the process, several culprits have been nabbed by the authority.
There have been several incidents where doctors took thousands of rupees from decoy customers to perform operations for illegal abortions. One doctor was even caught performing an operation on a minor girl who was seven-months pregnant. Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Hanumangarh are some of the districts where the PCPNDT cell has caught people involved in illegal abortions and sex determination. Clearly the situation is getting better in several places owing to the efforts of the PCPNDT Cell and hopefully soon the state will succeed in eliminating the evil practice of female foeticide.
