?1L for pregnant women to expose sex determination centres
Ghaziabad health department is reportedly planning to give ?1 lakh under three instalments to pregnant women who act as informers and help expose sex determination centres across Uttar Pradesh. An official said that in order to be eligible for the amount, the informer will have to give an undertaking that she won't abort the child if it was a girl.
The Ghaziabad district health department is scouting for pregnant women who can act as ?mukhbirs? (informers) and play a crucial role in cracking down on sex determination centres across Uttar Pradesh.The women can help identify on such centres and lead ?decoy operations?. There are incentives in three phases, starting from the point where the FIR is lodged to the stage where the court pronounces a judgment.The ?mukhbir? initiative was launched by chief minister Yogi Adityanath to improve the state?s skewed sex ratio. ?We need help from women who are four months pregnant and can help us get information about the sex determination centres. They can be accompanied by family members or relatives. The accompanying person will also be eligible for the incentive,? said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.The women used as a decoy will be eligible for an incentive of Rs 1 lakh under three installments. The first installment of Rs 30,000 will be given when she conducts a sex determination test and shares the information, which will be verified by officials.?For the woman to be eligible for the first instalment, she will have to give an undertaking that she will not abort the child if it is found to be a girl. This becomes mandatory to protect the unborn child. The information about the informer and the operation will be kept secret,? Gupta added.If it is found that the informers are making it a means to earn money or giving wrong information, they would be blacklisted, Gupta said.The second installment of Rs 30,000 will be paid after the woman gives her statement before the court. The balance amount of Rs 40,000 will be paid up once the court pronounces its judgment. The person accompanying the informer woman to the ?illegal? sex-determination centre will be paid Rs 10,000 each as first and second installments and Rs 20,000 in the third stage. The person could be her husband, a family member or a relative.In Ghaziabad, officials of the Haryana health department successfully conducted several decoy operations, using pregnant women, to unearth illegal sex-determination centres in Ghaziabad. Such operations were carried out in June at Loni and also at Nandgram in July earlier this month.The officials said the scheme was launched under the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act. District and state level committees will monitor the progress on a regular basis.