Say no to female foeticide

July 1 will be Girl Child Day in Vadodara

Express New Service, Vadodara, February 20

VADODARA-based Dr Prakash Desai has been appointed as the president of Federation of Obstetrics & Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI). Dr Desai said that July 1, also the birthday of late astronaut Kalpana Chawla, would be observed as Girl Child Day, wherein doctors will be sensitised on the issue of female foeticide. Dr Desai, who is an associate professor at Baroda Medical College's gynaecology department, was appointed as president of FOGSI, which is the world's largest organisation in the field.

"Obstetricians in the country have been blamed excessively for elimination of unborn female foetuses. My team has started attacking the menace of female foeticide," said Dr Desai.
The organisation has chosen 'Say No to Female Foeticide' as its slogan this year, and designated the birthday of Kalpana Chawla on July 1 as Girl-Child Day. On this day, obstetricians across the country will take an oath that they will not indulge in any activity that can reveal the sex of the unborn child or terminate a pregnancy where the sex of the child is revealed by someone else.
Besides this, all through out the year public rallies, public meetings and programmes against female feticide have been organised throughout the country. "FOGSI has already passed resolutions condemning these acts and we are now taking it forward. It is for the first time that obstetricians themselves are coming out so conspicuously and openly against prenatal sex determination and termination of such pregnancies," claimed Dr Desai.