To check the declining girl child sex ratio in Maharashtra, the state government may treat female foeticide as murder and book culprits under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
"To allow for stern punishment for those involved in sex determination, the public health department has asked the law and judiciary department for its opinion on whether the Section 302 can be applied against such offenders," Fauzia Khan, minister of state for public health said in the state legislative council on Wednesday. Khan was replying to a debate on the worsening child sex ratio in the state. The issue was raised by Alka Desai, Mohan Joshi and Rajan Teli (all Congress), and the NCP's Vinayak Mete and Hemant Takle.
Mete said the government should intensify its campaign to save the girl child. "There are many loopholes in the mandatory 'F" form," said Shobha Fadnavis of the BJP.
"Portable sonography centres would not be permitted. Portable sonography will only be allowed in case of an emergency with the permission of the government and that too only at hospitals, not at a stand-alone centre," she added.
Addressing a similar issue in the assembly last week, public health minister Suresh Shetty had said that plans were afoot to bring under the purview of the law those who force a woman to undergo sex determination test. The issue took an ugly turn after female foetuses were found in a river in Parli near Beed. The provisional figures of the 2011 census show the child sex ratio in 2011 in Maharashtra was 883 girls per 1,000 boys as against 993 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001.
As reported in: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-11/mumbai/29875797_1_sonography-centres-female-foeticide-girl-child