She was speaking at the one-day workshop on 'Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique (sex determination) Act', jointly organised by the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, District Health and Family Welfare Department and Public Works Department, Mangalore at the Regional Advanced Paediatric Care Centre in Wenlock Hospital here on Tuesday.
Raising concerns on the problem of gender discrimination, she said that the social and mental burden and violence on women due to gender discrimination was very high today. “We see the rate of crime increasing, most of which are committed on women. The number of female children is going down even in matriarchal districts like Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Around 1000 female children have gone missing from the population in Dakshina Kannada each year from 2006 to 2010, which is one symptom of male domination. This happens because our society is deep rooted in male preference,” she said, stating that medical practitioners ought to go beyond their profession and learn how to resolve the discrimination.
Shedding light on the reasons for the rampant vehement discrimination against women in the society, she said that gender had become naturalised in the society today. When it comes to the sex of a person, we merit certain strengths and weaknesses to both the sexes. However, if we look at gender, women are always considered weaker, even when the female foetus is scientifically proven as stronger than the male foetus. Today, subordination of women has become naturalised, and this is what we have to work against,” she said.
Speaking on the occasion, DK District Reproductive and Child Health Officer Dr Rukmini M said that most of the medical practitioners were unaware of the new amendments of the PC and PNDT Act (1994), which were brought into effect in 2012.
Under the Amendment rules 2012, each medical practitioner qualified under the Act to conduct ultrasonography is permitted to be registered with only two genetic clinics or ultrasound centres in a single district. Each clinic will also have to specify the consulting hours of each doctor attending the ultrasound centres, she said, listing preference of male child and dowry system as few reasons for the decline in female population.
DK District Surgeon and Medical Superintendent of Wenlock Hospital Dr P Saroja inaugurated the workshop.
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