IE : NGO survey reveals lax monitoring by civic health dept : Aug 28, 2007

NGO survey reveals lax monitoring by civic health dept

 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
AUGUST 27

AFTER some 10 NGOs raided over 40 sonography clinics registered with the BMC
in Chembur (West), concerned organisations are questioning the monitoring of
these clinics by the civic health department.

The survey, conducted through June, revealed startling figures pointing to a
rather skewed sex ratio in 10 wards. It further revealed that of the 40
clinics only one had obeyed law by maintaining all records. The rest had
inadequate documentation, raising suspicions that the clinics may have been
conducting pre-natal sex tests in violation of the the Pre-conception and
Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.

The Laadli Alliance formed by 10 NGOs-Population first, CORO, Parth, News,
Shree Nari Mukti Sanghatha, Apnalaya, Pragati, Sankalp, SMS and
Pratham-surveyed 40 out of 47 BMC-registered clinics. Seven could not be
traced.

BMC's excuse was the lack of awareness about the PCPNDT Act, which makes it
mandatory for local authorities to regularly monitor these clinics. "The
health department had a lot of work like monitoring monsoon-related
diseases. We do not have additional staff to conduct raids," said Dr Jairaj
Thanekar, executive health officer citing shortage of man power as reason.
Many of the 40 clinics were found to be defaulters on one of the five laws
laid down by PCPNDT Act. Only nine clinics had display boards indicating
'determination of the sex of the foetus is banned and illegal', six out of
40 doctors displayed their qualification certificates and 22 displayed
registration certificates. Only 5 clinics had antenatal care (ANC)
registers, while10 had the PCPNDT Act copy.

F Forms-mandatory for the doctors to maintain for each sonography, giving
details of the clinic and patientweren't found at 14 clinics.

"Even those maintaining the form, weren't submitting their summary on time,"
said Pradnya Shinde, Programme Executive Population First.

This is not the first time that the failure of the BMC monitoring mechanism
was being pointed out. In April 2006 a central team from Delhi had raided
two south Mumbai clinics, one of which had been awarded a certificate of
merit by the BMC.

When inquired whether BMC would take action on the latest report, Dr
Thanekar said, "We will check for ourselves whether whether these clinics
have maintained records before taking any action as the report may be
biased."

Publication : IE; Section :MN; Pg : 3; Date : 28/8/07
URL
:http://70.86.150.130/indianexpress/ArticleText.aspx?article=28_08_2007_523_004