A doctor's fight against foeticide

PROFILE/ Dr Neelam Singh

She is the only gynaecologist in Uttar Pradesh who is fighting against sex-determination tests and female foeticide.

Dr Neelam Singh is also the founder of Vatsalya"" an NGO which is leading the fight against female foeticide in UP. She had formed Vatsalya initially as a resource centre for health in 1995 to work in rural areas and slums.

Singh is a one-woman army as far as battling Uttar Pradesh's fast depleting population of girl children is concerned.

Earlier this month, Vatsalya, of which she is the secretary and chief functionary, paid a surprise visit to various ultrasound centres of Unnao. That was days after Vatsalya received the 15th Rotary India award for protection of the girl child.

"The main purpose of the visit was to check whether the practitioners are following the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT) and other legal norms for running a centre," she said. She is a gynaecologist, an alumnus of King George Medical College, Lucknow, who has seen discrimination against girls in the most blatant form of female foeticides with patients seeking the help of technology and doctors obliging them to eliminate the girl child.

"The thought of such an organisation occurred with the pouring demand by the parents for sex determination and eventually the incidences of female foeticide, faced by me in my medical practice," said Singh.

She not only wants to end female foeticide but also the attitude that considers women as lesser beings. "The problem of female foeticide will not be solved unless the PNDT Act, renamed as the Pre-conception and Prenatal diagnostic techniques ""Prohibition of Sex Selection Act 1994, is implemented. The latest findings state that female foeticide is more common in urban areas as compared with rural. This is a serious matter which needs to be dealt carefully," said Singh.

Vatsalya's Unnao raid had the cooperation of the local authorities. Vatsalya staff was accompanied by MR Gupta - deputy chief medical officer, Unnao.

The visit revealed that some of the centres were working illegally as their date of registration had already expired, they did not have proper documents and had illegally transported ultrasound machines from one place to another.

Two centres have been sealed in the district and asked to present proper documents before the end of this month.