‘‘The lacunae in the PNDT Act is the implementation rather than the Act itself,’’ said Radhika Kaul Batra, senior advocacy officer, United Nations Population Fund.

According to a recent Indo-Canadian study, about half-a-million unborn girl children are aborted every year in India. Estimates by the Indian Medical Association put the figure of female foetuses aborted in India each year at an even more alarming five million.

The PNDT Act provides that no genetic counselling centre, laboratory or clinic shall employ pre-natal diagnostic techniques, including ultra-sonography, for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus.

Any violation of the provisions of the Act is punishable with imprisonment of a term which may extend to five years, and a fine.

Census 2001 figures indicate that the practice could be rampant at least in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi with the ratio falling in some states to as low as 800 girls to 1000 boys.

Responding to a PIL, the Supreme Court also took a serious view of the decline in the sex ratio and the connection it may have with the use of pre-natal sex determination. It directed the Centre to implement the PNDT Act in all its aspects.

Directions to the State government included the setting up of empowered Appropriate Authorities at the district and sub-district levels and Advisory Committees comprising three medical experts and one legal expert, three social workers and one government functionary. However, most states do not even have the mechanism in place.