- Interactive Approach to Create Awareness amongst the General Population Regarding Unlawful Sex Determination Test
The main reasons for undergoing sex selective abortions are preferences toward male child and the inadequate knowledge about the PC & PNDT act.
Keeping all these facts in view, the objectives of our activity are-
1. To create awareness regarding the prevention of pre-conception and pre-natal sex determination.
2. To assess effect of awareness programme on the knowledge, attitude and practice of gender preference & pre-natal sex determination.
3. To contribute in the improvement of sex ratio.
A leading factor for the skewed sex ratio is the preference of family for a male child resulting in sex-selective abortion. Education is the only tool to increase the knowledge in the community. Irrespective of the educational status or economic class, majority people opt for prenatal sex selection of the child.
Although people have heard about the PC & PNDT act that it is illegal to determine the gender of foetus, and are aware of the punishment under it, still they need to be constantly educated regarding the legal and ethical issues related to female foeticide. The various practices being performed by our department include skits, poster presentations and banners. The skit has been successfully used by our department to make people aware of the malpractice of sex determination, its legal and ethical consequences.
After the skit is performed, feedback form in regional language is distributed to the audience wherein we ask about their understanding of the motive behind the skit and its impact on them. This survey helps us to make any improvements if required any. Among the various social indicators to assess the prevailing equity between males and females in the society, sex ratio remains the key indicator.
In a busy community hospital where the patient load is high, it is challenging to perform these practices as it is time consuming process. It requires multiple experts, specialized in respectively modality to work together. Plus it becomes difficult to garner attention of the people especially while performing skits. We try to overcome all these hurdles with constant dedication.
The main reason for female feticide is based on a common perception that the female child is an economic burden on the family. In addition, women who give birth to daughters face much more domestic violence which makes them complicit in getting rid of girl child. We try to provide education and moral support regarding such issues by means of communication with the patients at individual level. We are further planning to tackle such issues by usage of different mass media.
Our sincere efforts will continue till our objectives aren’t met. We will continuously strive to do our part for the betterment of our society.