New Delhi, July 3: After blocking websites offering gender-testing kits, the Union Health Ministry is now trying to make it difficult for people to get it through import. The Ministry has proposed to the customs department to put these kits on the “restricted list”.

While certain medical equipment involving testing of body fluid is already on the restricted list, the Ministry officials believe that since importing such kits cannot totally be banned, as these are also needed for research work, these should be brought within the purview of such a restriction list. For importing the medical equipment which is on the restriction list, prior permission from the Drug Controller General of (India) is needed. It is also necessary to explain to the customs department the need for buying such equipment.

At present, it is difficult for the Customs to distinguish and intercept the “gender-testing kits” if these arrive in a package bearing a description like that of Pre-conception Ovulation Predicting Kit, which is permitted under the foreign trade policy.

“It is, therefore, necessary that parameters are made to facilitate the Customs authorities to distinguish the identity of the gender-testing kits from other similar equipment permitted to be imported,” an official said.

The trigger for the Ministry to think on these lines came in the form of recent information from the customs department that these kits are imported mostly by the people living in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh where the sex ratio is falling immensely.

Bottom five: (females per thousand males)

• Punjab 798

• Haryana 819

• Chandigarh 854

• Delhi 868

• Gujarat 883