INDORE: Lack of coordination between Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) cell and woman and child development department has hampered monitoring of ‘vulnerable’ pregnancy cases reported in Indore raising chances of unlawful abortions going untraced.To keep check on sex determination and unlawful abortions, former district collector P Narahari in 2016-17 had made it compulsory to install GPS tracking devices on every sonography centre and had also instructed the PCPNDT cell for identification of ‘vulnerable’ cases, in which pregnant women, who already have one or more girl children, were kept for monitoring to avoid unlawful abortion.
According to officials, the step has helped in sending a message to people of facing strict actions on opting for unlawful abortion. The district administration, however, failed to continue the same system later on and officials have cited lack of coordination between departments the reason behind it.
“We are responsible for identifying ‘vulnerable’ cases and send it to WCD for monitoring. Despite repeated reminders, we don’t get reports of those cases leading to problems in keeping track of ‘unlawful’ abortions in the past one-and-a-half years,” PCPNDC nodal officer Satish Joshi told TOI.
On the other hand, WCD officials have raised demand to involve local health department for monitoring of ‘vulnerable’ cases in urban areas.
“In urban areas, WCD faces problem in keeping track of the cases and if local health department renders help, the task can be performed,” district programme officer (DPO) Rajneesh Sinha told TOI.
To this, zila panchayat CEO Neha Meena said, “lack of coordination has surfaced between PCPNDT and WCD. There is also a need for involvement of local health department. The issue has been taken up and the situation will soon be resolved.”