Goa to suspend licenses of errant ultrasound clinics

The South Goa district administration is mulling suspension of licenses of those ultrasound clinics which regularly fail to submit documents related to tests conducted on pregnant women, an official spokesperson said Thursday.

The recommendation by the Advisory Committee formed under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act comes at a time when the successive governments have introduced several measures to improve Goa's skewed sex ratio.

"It has been observed that even after issuing show cause notices to the clinics for failing to submit Form 'F' there is no positive response from some clinics and therefore we felt the need to suspend licenses of such clinics," the spokesperson said. The Advisory Committee was chaired by South Goa District Collector Sachin Shinde.

The Form 'F' contains the details of the tests conducted on pregnant patients and other relevant details which are then examined and compiled by the Directorate of Health Services as prescribed under the PNDT act.

The state, which otherwise takes pride in its high literacy percentage of 87.40, has a sex ratio of 968:1000.

While the ratio is slightly above the national average of 940:1000, as per the 2011 census, the coastal state ranks 11th vis-a-vis sex ratio comparisons, with Kerala topping the list at 1084:1000 and Daman and Diu languishing at the bottom with a ratio of 618:1000.