�Girl child killer� Punjab gets entangled in US web

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CHANDIGARH: Struggling with one of the poorest sex ratios in the country, Punjab has found an enemy in a US website.

The site is fast becoming popular both among doctors carrying out clandestine pre-natal tests (PNTs) and parents who want to do away with female foetuses.

Doctors or parents seeking to get PNTs done could register on the site, following which a kit is supplied by Massachusetts-based Acu Gen Biolab Inc.

The kit contains a strip on which a blood sample is provided which helps detect the sex of the foetus. The company charges around $400 for each test promising complete privacy.

After the government crackdown on doctors engaged in PNTs, the website seems to have come in too handy. Though no advertisement for the purpose has yet been put up by the company, doctors had been spreading the word to attract clients.

Health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla said the government was completely in the dark about it. Expressing concern at the development, she said the state might take up the matter with the Centre and seek a ban on the website.

Punjab, incidentally, has been struggling with a declining sex ratio which had dipped to the lowest (761) in the country last year. The health authorities registered cases against 23 doctors last year even as effort was made to involve NGOs and celebrities in spreading the message against PNT.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) also took up the responsibility. After the highest religio-temporal seat, the Akal Takht, issued an edict in 2003 banning female foeticides among Sikhs, the SGPC decided to play a pro-active role. The Akal Takht jathedar (head priest) had proclaimed that any Sikh indulging in female foeticide would be ostracised from the community. Though taken as a commandment, the edict seemed to have failed to elicit the desired response as incidents of female foeticide continued unabated in the state.