Haryana Chief Secretary Sudhir Rajpal orders suspensions, stricter monitoring, and PNDT enforcement to raise sex ratio to 920 this year.

Furthermore Sh. Sudhir Rajpal, the chief secretary of the department of health and family welfare, has instructed district administrations and health authorities around the state to coordinate closely and make a concentrated effort to increase the sex ratio to 920 this year. He took severe measures, ordering two health officers to be suspended for failing to bring about the anticipated improvement in their districts.

In a video conference with the superintendents of police and deputy commissioners of the six underperforming districts—Sirsa, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Charkhi Dadri, Nuh, and Jhajjar—Sh. Sudhir Rajpal instructed them to work with the civil surgeons to improve the sex ratio.

Additionally, he instructed these districts’ Deputy Commissioners to step up monitoring and reverse track incidents of unlawful abortions.

Additionally, in conjunction with municipal authorities, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal instructed staff to guarantee that all infants are required to be registered, particularly in urban slum clusters. To improve the state’s overall performance on sex-ratio metrics, he urged district teams.

Prior to this, a State Task Force meeting on improving the sex ratio was headed by the Additional Chief Secretary. During this meeting, significant decisions were made to improve surveillance, stop gender-determination procedures, and combat illicit abortions.

In light of the declining numbers, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal issued an order suspending the SMO of Halalpur in Sonipat and the Medical Officer of PHC Jattanwali in Sirsa for their incompetence, which caused the sex-ratio data to drop.

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It was resolved at the conference that in order to guarantee strict legal action, the CDRs of those engaged in unlawful MTPs and sex-determination activities will now be presented as evidence in court.

The creation of a MIS portal to track all court cases pertaining to PNDT was also overseen by Sh. Sudhir Rajpal. He stated that in order to expedite the resolution of PNDT cases, a letter will be sent to the Home Secretary of Haryana requesting permission to take them up in POCSO courts. In order to pursue cases more successfully, the department has also chosen to investigate the idea of hiring or attaching a group of specialized attorneys to the state headquarters, given the poor conviction record in PNDT cases.

All Civil Surgeons were instructed by the Additional Chief Secretary to compile a list of all the clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes operated by BAMS/GAMS/BHMS practitioners in their districts. The list should clearly indicate which ones have registered gynecologists and which are authorized MTP centers.

In order to submit a proposal to the government for approval, he also instructed the officials to draft a rule prohibiting gynecologists from performing abortions at more than two facilities while considering all relevant legal considerations.

The conference was also attended by senior personnel, including Dr. Simmi Verma, Dr. Mukta Kumar, Dr. Virender Yadav, Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Dr. Manish Bansal, and Director General Health Services.