Question

Explain the following statement with reasons:

The state government of Maharashtra banned sex/gender prediction test of a fetus.

Answer 1

1. Prevention of Female Foeticide: The primary reason for the ban was to stop the practice of aborting female fetuses, which often occurred after the sex of the child was determined through medical tests.
2. Correcting the Sex Ratio: The government aimed to arrest the alarming decline in the child sex ratio (the number of girls per 1,000 boys), which had reached historic lows due to a societal preference for male children.
3. Stopping the Misuse of Technology: Diagnostic techniques like ultrasound and amniocentesis were originally intended to detect genetic or chromosomal abnormalities. The ban was necessary to prevent these technologies from being misused for gender-selective abortions.
4. Upholding Gender Equality: The ban protects the right to life of the girl child and promotes gender equality by eliminating discrimination before birth.
5. Pioneer Legislation: Maharashtra was the first state in India to enact such a law (the Maharashtra Regulation of Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1988), which later served as a model for the national PCPNDT Act of 1994.