Jamshedpur : The East Singhbhum district administration will soon launch a special drive against anomalies prevailing in the ultrasound clinics at several nursing-homes and private clinics in the city.
The first initiative is aimed against nearly 156 ultrasound clinics operational in and around city to ensure adherence to the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (1994) (popularly known as PCPNDT Act which bans sex determination) since the formation of the state in the city, health department has formed three teams comprising three-members.
Officials of the health department said that the clinics do not have proper infrastructure nor qualified doctors. But despite warning and issuing the state health department’s circular, the management of the clinics and private hospitals’ management had failed to pay heed to proper norms for operating the clinics.
The health department has instructions from Health and Family Welfare Department to take stern action against all those clinics which were flouting norms.
An ultrasound clinic owner was also caught red handed recently by a health department team here while he was taking money from a pregnant woman for sex detection of her unborn child.
Clinics violate Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994. The inspection team found all the clinics and diagnostic centres not being operated as per the PNDT Act.
Most of the over 70 X-Ray clinics operating in and around the city do not have the necessary infrastructure and even a doctor. Such clinics are run basically by technicians only. According to the latest census (2011), Jamshedpur�s sex ratio for children between 0 and six years is 887 girls for every 1,000 boys.
The trend reflects a disturbing plunge from 920 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001 census. In fact, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro are among the worst in terms of child sex ratio in Jharkhand. Jamshedpur and Dhanbad are twins in shame with 887 girls per 1,000 boys. Bokaro fares worse with 881 girls.
Revealing about the move, the civil surgeon, Vibha Sharan said that steel city is crowded with a large number of clinics, many of them are situated in the nursing-homes in the city and also in the city suburbs. The drive against clinics will also be carried out in the government-run hospital and health care centres across the district.
Sharan admitted that district monitoring committee has not been functioning properly for the last few months giving room for the ultrasound clinics to function whimsically.
In fact, ultrasound clinics have to submit test details in Form F by the fifth of every month. The Form F bears personal details of the patients, residential address, telephone numbers and signature of the doctor and patient declaring that no sex determination was done.