Off the wire
• Xinjiang's daily natural gas output passes milestone  • Dubai sets up strategic partnerships to lure more Chinese visitors  • China Hushen 300 index futures close higher Tuesday  • China treasury bond futures close lower Tuesday  • 3rd LD Writethru: U.S. airstrikes kill 46 militants, destroy IS radio in Afghanistan  • Petrobras former international head sentenced to 12 years in jail  • China works toward artemisinin lupus treatment  • 100 S. Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor join lawsuits against Japanese firms  • Tokyo stocks slide on oil price retreat, yen's appreciation  • M5.7 quake strikes Japan's northeast, no tsunami warning issued  
You are here: 　 Home

Indian official calls for change on sex determination tests to curb female foeticide

Xinhua, February 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

A senior Indian minister has advocated for revoking a decades-old ban on sex determination tests, saying that it should be made compulsory to check the menace of female foeticide in this country.

"It is better that we change the policy. It is being discussed though there is no conclusion yet," Indian Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said Monday.

She added: "As soon as the woman is pregnant, it becomes compulsory for her to tell if it is a boy or a girl and she has to register. If she registers in the initial stages, you will be able to monitor whether the birth took place or not."

India, which figures among the countries with the world's worst child sex ratios, banned sex determination tests in 1994 to curb the killing of female fetuses in some parts of the country where the birth of a boy is considered to be a boon.

Ultrasound tests to determine the sex of a foetus is considered illegal in India and anyone found to be indulging in such acts faces a maximum punishment of five years in jail. Endit