States asked to develop online portals to report prenatal sex

The Centre has asked the states to develop online portal to receive complaints on prenatal sex determination, a communique from the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry stated.
The communique was a result of the decision taken on the recommendation of Central Supervisory Board (CSB) constituted under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC and PNDT) Act, 1994, said an official spokesperson of Punjab Government today.
If an online portal for this purpose already exists the concerned authority should ensure that information on the unethical practise of pre-natal sex determination in timely updated on it, he said.
The Union Ministry has also directed the health authorities to conduct audit of all records by appropriate district authorities, the spokesperson said.

He said that CSB has noticed that scrutiny or examination of various records is not being conducted properly.
The district authorities has been instructed to scrutinise and analyse all records to be maintained under the PC and PNDT Act as it would help to identify actual culprits involved in illegal practise of pre-natal sex determination.
The authorities should also analyse all records including Out Patient Department, In Patient Department and outcome registers of the In Vitro Fertilization centres or facilities, the spokesperson said.