The Uttar Pradesh government's informer scheme to curb illegal pre-natal sex determination tests was launched after taking a cue from a similar one in Rajasthan, an official said today.
"The scheme has helped us to curb sex-selection practices within and outside Rajasthan. They (UP government) had inquired us about it and launched an almost similar scheme," Rajasthan health and family welfare department secretary Naveen Jain told PTI.
The Uttar Pradesh government had last month launched a scheme titled 'Mukhbir Yojana' (Informer Scheme) aimed at tackling cases of female foeticide.
Jain said the move comes following the recently released fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data that showed a decline of 19 points in Uttar Pradesh's sex ratio.
According to the NFHS-4, Uttar Pradesh's sex ratio is 903 females per 1,000 males against 922 in NFHS-3 (2005-06).
According to Rajasthan health department data, 33 decoy operations were carried out in 2016-17 and 13 so far in 2017- 18. This includes 17 interstate operations including in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
Till now, 75 decoy operations have been conducted by the state authorities.
Rajasthan currently rewards the participants of the decoy operation Rs 2.5 lakh.
Forty per cent of the reward is given to the informer, another 40 per cent to the pregnant woman deployed as decoy and 20 per cent to the person who escort her.
"We got teeth after a Rajasthan government notification empowered us with powers of police. Now, we have PCPNDT Bureau of Investigation (PBI)," Jain said.
"We book the accused under IPC section 315 in which jail term can extend up to 10 years. We work as police and administrative officer which help us in tightening the noose on culprits," he said.
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