Shivpuri, November 7-8, 2005
There's a sense of victory in the tiny administrative circles in Shivpuri town. The fiery District Collector, spurned by media reports and figures provided to her by NGOs and activists, goaded the Chief Medical Officer (Health) into suspending the licenses for all the clinics with ultrasound machines in this dusty town.
The PNDT Act stipulates strict conditions that have to be met in order to operate an ultrasound machine (which, amongst other functions, also tests the sex of a foetus). Brazenly, says the Collector, all the most basic norms were being flouted: forms incomplete, details missing and no way for the Government to know why the ultrasound machines were being used.
But even with the licenses suspended and a temporary victory, there's the stark reality that powerful lobbies could tilt the scales and hand over the use of the ultrasound machines back to the doctors. The impending sense of doom is provided in no little part by the example of nearby Morena.
Morena has the worst sex ratio in Madhya Pradesh (while Shivpuri stands third)with 822 girls for every 1,000 boys. The figure is probably lower at the block level. It was only recently that civil society pressure groups forced the administration to suspend the licenses of clinics using ultrasound machines without following proper procedures. But it wasn't long before the licenses were handed back when the clinics appealed to a higher State-level Committee.
Late at night in Shivpuri, women's activists are briefed by their counterparts from Morena who warn that the temporary victory here could be shortlived: powerful doctors' lobbies could influence state level committees here as well, and Shivpuri, dismally, could go the Morena way.
*
Here's an excellent report waved at me by a PNDT activist.
