July 14: Now, the pregnancy registration can be mandatory if the center imposes it successfully as government is planning to create a registry of all pregnancy to reduce the high mortality of infants especially the female embryos. On the other hand activists are suspecting about the success of this plan, as it is looking totally impractical.
“This will help to check both foeticide and infant mortality. With this, mysterious abortions will become difficult,” said Renuka Chowdhary, Women and Child Development minister. With this registration process government wants to break the networks of all the illegal abortion clinics and persons involved in foeticide, whether doctors or parents. “The abortion will be allowed when there must be an acceptable and very strong valid reason”, said Renuka.
The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF welcomed the plan but suspected on it. According to it, “The government should also need to provide more facilities for institutional deliveries in rural areas and crack down harder on doctors abetting foeticide” as more population of India lives in the village, where clinics, dispensaries and hospitals or proper medical facilities are still not available sufficiently.
"Registering pregnancies is good. If we act upon mothers by registering pregnancies, offering quality ante-natal care, good counseling to deal with complications and an efficient transportation network ... this would enormously help promote institutional deliveries and strengthen and expand the safe maternity scheme, said Marzio Babille, the head health of UNICEF in India.
Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Health Minister is also agree with this proposal. He said that we should ashamed on the female foeticide. There must be institutional pregnancy test. Commenting on the issue, Ramadoss said, "We will provide facilities to conduct pregnancy tests in each village. It will help provide better healthcare facilities to the mother and child. The monitoring program will first start in villages wherein workers in each village will register the total pregnancies. Later, it will be implemented in urban areas."
According to government figures, approximately 10 million girls have been killed in India, inside the womb and outside the womb. At present, India's infant mortality rate is much higher than destitute Bangladesh and Namibia that is 57 per 1,000 live births, which is double that of Egypt. “ India has almost 20 percent of the world’s mortality cases” UNICEF figures.
On the other hand, social activists and intellectuals are not sure about the success of this plan. According to them, it seems unrealistic as more than 50 percent of women deliver children at home without medical assistance, how can it be possible to register 15 million cases in a year.
“We cannot give elementary health services in a satisfactory way to most of our citizens, and to talk about registering pregnancies is ridiculous," said Alok Mukhopadhyay, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India. "Public awareness, empowerment of women and extension of health services are key in fighting infant mortality and foeticide, as well as implementing the existing laws that forbid sex determination.", added Mukhopadhayay.
While Ranjana Kumari, the President of Women Power Connect, a prominent NGO said, “First of all, it's absolutely not necessary. If you want registration of pregnancy, it would be a coercive move. We should not forget the memory of family planning era wherein the government was ousted out of the power, as people didn't except coercive measures. Moreover, to control female foeticide, we have to look at the registration of the nursing homes where abortions are taking place, we have to understand why people are going in for abortions and will have to work towards changing the mindset of the people. I personally find registration of pregnancy very coercive and intrusive as far as women are concerned."
About asking the success of this plan, Renuka Chowdhary said, “I don't know if it is going to be a great success, but we must try. We must try to set right maternal mortality and infant mortality rates. In a progressive India like ours, isn't it a shame that our women still die in childbirth? All we're attempting is to ensure that mother and child are safe.” While Ramadoss said, “There is a practical problem in registering abortions; however, we will work out a method”.
Some other social activists are worried about the misusing of the data. They concerns that if government implements this plan, the guilty people and institutions won’t show any figures as they are the liable for this hectic deeds. According to government planning, health clinics and village representatives will provide the first information to the government.
According to Hindu mythology, “Son is liable to carry their parents into paradise”. Besides these, the custom of dowry that is rooted almost in every society is main reason for female foeticide. Indian parents think that only a boy can be their future and breadwinner. He is only liable person to produce heir of their family.
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