Conference on Prenatal sex selection in India; issues, concerns and actions<br>

The National Human Rights Commission organized a Conference on "Prenatal sex selection in India; issues, concerns and actions" at India International Centre, New Delhi on the 12th October, 2010.
Inaugurating the conference, Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that the Commission considers the prenatal sex selection as violation of women's rights. He said that prenatal sex selection has serious consequences for girls and women in terms of physical and sexual violence and restrictions on their mobility. In fact, this tendency has resulted in skewed population sex ratio in a number of countries, particularly in Asia, including India. He said that surprisingly, the girls' and boys' ratios are extremely adverse in urban and affluent areas. These suggest that the girls are being discriminated before birth. He said that this is happening despite the fact that there is a law which holds prenatal sex selection illegal. Justice Balakrishnan said that it seems there are problems in its implementation as there have been very few convictions, so far. In this connection, he also referred to the research done by the Commission in collaboration with the UN Population Fund covering 18 States in the country.
Dr. Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, in her remarks, said that the need of the hour is to bring about a change in the mindset of the people whereby both girls and boys are treated at par.
Mr. Sunil Krishna, Director General (Investigation) and Mr. J.P. Meena, Joint Secretary (P&A), NHRC also addressed the inaugural session.
The conference was divided into three sessions. The first thematic session on 'Prenatal sex selection: Trends, causes and consequences' was chaired by Mr. P.C. Sharma, Member, NHRC. The speakers included Ms. Ena Singh, Assistant Representative, UNFPA, New Delhi and Mr. Subhash Mendhapurkar, Director, SUTRA, Solan, Himachal Pradesh.
The second session on 'Prenatal Sex Selection - action and challenges' was chaired by Mr. Justice B.C. Patel, Member, NHRC. The panelists were Dr. Sabu M. George, Fellow, Intercultural Resources, New Delhi and Ms. Ila Vakharia, Project Director, CHETNA, Ahmedabad.
The third and the last session of the conference was on the 'Status of the implementation of the Pre-conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act across key states'. It was chaired by Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC and Ms. Ena Singh, Assistant Representative, UNFPA, New Delhi. Dr. Sarasu E. Thomas, Assistant Professor, NLSIU, Bangalore gave a presentation on the subject during the session. Each session followed with an open house discussion.
Following were the key points which emerged out of the discussion;
" Strengthening the implementation of the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 is necessary;
" Changing the mindset of the people is important;
" There is a need to involve other key stakeholders in the process so that the practice of pre-natal sex selection is eliminated.
The conference was attended by the representatives from National Commissions, State Human Rights Commissions, Officers of the Central and the State Governments, delegates from NGOs, Universities, Colleges etc.