Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994

Walk past a scan centre in almost any Indian town and you will see a board that says, in the local language, that sex determination is a punishable offence. Why is that board there? India's child sex ratio has been skewed for decades, and the evidence points to couples using cheap ultrasound to find out whether a foetus is female and then ending the pregnancy. Parliament's answer was to regulate the diagnostic technology itself, rather than the private decision of the couple. This topic explains how the PCPNDT Act of 1994 does that, who it binds, and what it punishes.

In two minutes

The PCPNDT Act 1994 prohibits sex selection before or after conception and determination of the sex of a foetus, and permits pre-natal diagnostic techniques only in registered centres, for listed medical purposes, with the pregnant woman's written consent.

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