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Sale of used ultrasound machines to be monitored
- As India prepares to observe Tuesday as the National Girl Child Day, the Central Supervisory Board — set up under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 — has decided to monitor the disposal and sale of used or re-assembled ultrasound machines to prevent the technology being misused for sex determination.
- The Medical Council of India will also take steps to suspend or cancel the registration of doctors convicted under the Act.
- The latest Census had shown that child sex ratio had declined in 22 States and five Union Territories.
- It is the lowest in Haryana (830), Punjab (846) and Jammu and Kashmir (859) compared with the national figure of 914 females to every 1,000 males.
- Statistics suggested that infant mortality rate was higher among girls than boys, and the reasons for the neglect of girl child were:
- preference for boys;
- the low status of women;
- social and financial security associated with sons; and
- socio-cultural practices, including dowry and violence against women.
- The small family norm, coupled with the easy availability of sex determination technology and abortion services, acted as a catalyst in the declining child sex ratio.
WHO meet adopts mental health resolution
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has adopted a resolution that focuses on the global burden of mental disorders and the need for a comprehensive, coordinated response from health and social sectors at the country level.
- United States of America and Switzerland supported the resolution moved by India at the just-concluded 130{+t}{+h}executive board meeting of the WHO.
- Mental disorders account for 13 per cent of the global burden of the diseases and, in keeping with the latest thinking, the resolution recognises the importance of early identification, care and recovery, the problems of stigma, poverty and homelessness and the need for community-based intervention including deinstitutionalised care.
- India had played a key role in getting mental disorders included in the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) list at the first Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Non-communicable Disease Control in Moscow last year.
‘Don't support water summit'
- While Bangalore World Water Summit 2012 was being organised, many members of Peoples Campaign for Right to Water were in way of protesting the summit, which according to them is nothing but an effort to commoditise, commercialise and slowly privatise water services
- They say, it will pave the way to the entry of multinational corporates to take control of water in line with the World Bank agenda.
