Drumstick boost to mid-day meal

To improve health ofmalnourished kids, govt will provide 10-gm of saragwa in schools; supply to bemet by growing vegetable

Being a state with the third highest number of malnourished children in India, Gujarat government has decided to take a cue from Karnataka and introduce drumstick in its midday meal (MDM) scheme for schools.

Nepotism strikes TB project

The Indian Medical Association projectthat is meant for private hospitals for better implementation of TB programmegets limited to government Civil Hospital and BJ Medical College leavingclassrooms without teachers in the afternoon

Rupali Sharma (name changed), a student of microbiology, and her classmates were hanging out with other students at the canteen of BJ Medical College in the afternoon when she should have been in the classroom. Reason: Their professors were attending a workshop on TB organised by Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA). The workshop, incidentally, was supposed to be organised at private hospitals.

GRADUATES RENT WOMB TO SECURE THEIR FUTURE

 Number of educated women willingto rent out their wombs is on the rise; many use the money to start a business,educate their children or invest in property, say infertility experts

Mona Mahta a-28-year-old woman with a BCom degree, earned lakhs of rupees in eight months.

She is using the money to not only educate her two daughters but also prepare for examination to get a bank job. But Mehta she is not just another working mother. She is a surrogate mom.

43,000 kids from city suffer from diabetes

Sedentary lifestyle, academic stressand excessive use of smart technology put kids at risk; Ahmedabad stands thirdhighest in country for juvenile diabetes

Sushil Mehta, a 13-year old studying at a private school in the city, goes for a 20-minute run every morning before getting ready for school. No, he is not training for the annual sports meet. He was recently diagnosed with type-2 diabetes which came as shock to his family considering his young age. “I never thought my son will become a diabetic at such an early age.

WEBSITES REMOVE ADVERTS FOR HOME GENDER TEST KITS

An Indiamart listing for a `gender prediction'kit  promising totell parents the sex of their baby after just 10 weeks ofpregnancy has beentaken off the site. A day after Mirror reported how IntelliGender home sex-testkit  was easily available online and delivered throughout the country, severalother domestic e-commerce portals advertising this kit followed suit andremoved the ads from their websites. The selective abortion of female foetusesis rampant in India, resulting in a tragically skewed sex ratio of 914 girls to1,000 boys in the country. The situation is more morbid in Gujarat where theratio is 883 girls to 1,000 boys. Mirror's report `Battle against female foetusgoes online' (AM; Nov 10) highlighted how this pre-natal sex prediction kitspelt trouble for states where the practice of killing females in the womb isconsidered both practical and socially acceptable.

Indiamart.com, which claims to be India's largest online business-to-business marketplace, advertised `IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test Kit' which assured identification of a foetus's gender through a urine test. The official IntelliGender website states, “IntelliGender is designed for easy home use by curious expectant mothers. In minutes, the test indicates your gender result based upon an easy-to-read colour match.Green indicates boy and orange indicates girl!“ The kit was also available on in.ebid.net, an online auction website, and http:www.indianindustry.com, another online marketplace. However, the portals stopped removed the advertisements a day after the Mirror report was published.

Considering that genderbased abortions are banned in India, such advertisements for prenatal gender selection kits are illegal. According to PreConception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, any kind of advertisement relating to sex determination test is illegal and a punishable offence.

When contacted, Vijendrasingh Mansingh Rajput from Indiamart (Ahmedabad) said, “The advertisement must have been put up on the website accidentally. However, since this product is banned in India, advertising it goes against the rules. Hence, we have removed the online ads related to this product.“

The existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, allows abortion till the 20th week of pregnancy. An amendment has been proposed to allow abortion till the 24th week.

Heard this? No one killed female foetus

Female foetuses are found inlitter bins and officials accept hospitals conducting sex determination testsdo exist, yet health dept's RTI reply says there has been no case of femalefoeticide in the state in 7 years

These are a few cases which caught public attention and many more cases remain unreported. Yet, an RTI filed by Mirror with the health and family welfare department elicited the response on October 30 that in seven years beginning 2008, no case of female foeticide has been registered against anyone and hence no one has been convicted. Either the authorities concerned are giving wrong information or have not bothered to collect relevant information.

The discrimination against girl child

AMISHA YAGNIK recounted her horror story in the episode on `female foeticide' of Aamir Khan-anchored Satyamev Jayate in 2012. She was forced to abort her unborn girl child six times in eight years. Later her husband was arrested and a case registered against him.

BATTLE AGAINST FEMALE FOETUS GOES ONLINE

Despite Centre's ban, gender test kits are sold online, delivering a huge blow to Gujarat which is already reeling from skewed sex ratio

Murder is a heinous crime. Yet, there are many in India who think nothing of the brutality of killing females even before they have the opportunity to be born.The selective abortion of female foetuses is rampant in India, resulting in a tragically skewed sex ratio of 914 girls to 1,000 boys in the country.

The situation is more morbid in Gujarat where the ratio is 883 girls to 1,000 boys. While the gov ernment has banned sex determination tests in the country, domestic e-commerce sites are selling an illegal home sex-test kit that promises to tell expecting moms whether they are carrying a boy or a girl as early as 10 weeks after conception. The kit is easily available online, spelling trou ble for states where the practice of killing females in the womb is both practical and socially acceptable.

Indiamart.com, which claims to be India's largest online business-tobusiness marketplace, advertises `IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test Kit' which assures identification of a foetus's gender through a urine test. Due to the ban in India, such ads for prenatal gender selection kits are neither harmless nor legal.

According to Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, any kind of advertisement relating to sex determination test is illegal and a punishable offence.Yet, the kit is also available on in.ebid.net, an online auction website, and http:www.indianindustry.com, another online marketplace.

EASY AVAILABILITY

The official website for IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test Kit states, “IntelliGender is designed for easy home use by curious expectant mothers. In minutes, the test indicates your gender result based upon an easy-to-read colour match. Green indicates boy and orange indicates girl!“ When this correspondent contacted Vijendrasingh Mansingh Rajput from Indiamart (Ahmedabad) as a customer, he said, “The product will be made available in the city.“

On further request, he provided the number of Sunil Gupta, who works in New Delhi at 3G Chemist, the shop that supplies the kit across the country.

Over the telephone, Gupta said, “We courier the kit across the country, even Gujarat. However, the customer needs to pay an advance amount of Rs 6,000 per kit. We offer a discount of Rs 500 on pre-payment so the kit costs Rs 5,500 including delivery charges. We deliver teh kits in batches. Our next delivery is slated for November 20.“

International websites like eBay, which do not sell the product in India, price the product at Rs 2,000. Asked about the steep priceing, Gupta said, “We import the product from the US, which adds to the cost.“

Interestingly, Gupta is quite aware that the product is deemed illegal in India. “We deliver the kit in a plain box. It does not mention details of the product on the outside. So it is safe and does not involve legal complications as no one is wiser. “ Sadly, 3G Chemist is not the only seller. Many dealers are advertising the kit on several e-commerce sites.In.ebid.net is selling the product for Rs 3080 (approx) which includes “international shipping From United States to India“. Website http:www.indianindustry.com also carries advertisements for the same product. Under PCPNDT Act, enacted by the Indian Parliament in 1994, any kind of sex determination test is banned. Section 2 of the Act states `any equipment capable of determining sex of the foetus or portable equipment which has the potential for detection of sex during pregnancy or selection of sex before conception' is prohibited in the country. Also, Section 3B states, “No person shall sell any ultrasound machine or imaging machine or scanner or any other equipment capable of detecting sex of a foetus to any genetic counselling centre, genetic laboratory, genetic clinic or any other person not regis tered under the Act.“

Despite this Act, any person in India who has access to the internet can log on to these portals and order the kit. This will be a setback to Gujarat's `Save the Girl Child' campaign,“ said a family welfare department official, adding, “Regular and repeated inspection of sonography centres has reduced sex determination practices in the state considerably.“

When Mirror informed about the online sale of these kits to the department's Assistant Director Rakesh R Vaidya, he said, “I will discuss the matter with higher authority.“

KIT'S EFFICACY

Can a woman, within weeks of her pregnancy, find out the sex of her child by pee ing into a cup? That is what makers of IntelliGender claim. But how accurate is it?

IntelliGender's latest report boasts of 78-80 per cent accuracy rate even as the firm refuses to divulge what hormones or chemicals it uses it in its test be cause of a pending patent. “Most parents have a great degree of curiosity to find out if they're having a boy or a girl, and it can be so excruciating to wait until the 20 week sonogram to find out,“ IntelliGender co-founder Rebecca Griffin says, follow ing it with the rider: “But the test was never meant to be a diagnostic tool. We don't claim 100 percent accuracy.“

In fact, the company's website specifically says to not “paint the room pink or blue“ until an expectant mom confirms results with her doctor. Unlike the West, gender testing isn't just about painting the nursery or picking the right colour for baby clothes, it's about aborting the unwanted foetus. Interestingly, while the test is available for sale in 11 countries, Griffin claims IntelliGender does not sell the test to India or China. Fertility experts are skeptical about IntelliGender's claim.

“Results for such tests are accurate as making a random guess. People should not waste their money on such kits,“ says city gynaecologist Sheetal Punjabi.

Farmer suicide in Gujarat is nil

At a time when apex court has sought response fromGujarat on farmer suicide due to agrarian reasons, an RTI shows state providedincorrect data on the same to the Centre

The Supreme Court on last Friday had issued notice to Gujarat government on a plea by an NGO seeking com pensation to families of over 600 debt-ridden farmers who had allegedly committed suicide in the state from 2003 to 2012.

However, information sought under the Right To Information Act by Mirror regarding the same from the Union Ministry of Agriculture revealed that between 2009 and 2013, no farmer had committed sui cide in Gujarat due to crop failure.

CRANTI, the NGO, in its petition had stated that since 2003 -when suicides by farmers started in Gujarat -till August 20, 2012 as many as 619 farmers committed suicide in the state. The figures, according to the petition, were based on the response of the Gujarat govern ment to two RTI applications.

Smog caused by Diwali crackers leaves Amdavadis... - Out of breath

Heavy metals suspended in airafter Diwali leads to 20 per cent rise in number of patients suffering fromasthma, allergies and pulmonary problems

Come Diwali, everyone bursts crackers and celebrates with family and friends. Many feel the heat of this festivity the next day when toxic smog released by the crackers blankets the city and tortures the lungs of people suffering from respiratory and heart ailments.

“Post-Diwali, we see a rise of 20 per cent in number of patients suffering from respiratory ailments and asthma,“ said Dr Rajesh Solanki of pulmonary medicine department at BJ Medical College.

According to data provided by 108 emergency service, cases of allergy, cardiac arrest, respiratory problems and stroke have risen this year. “In 2013, 89 cases were reported. This soared to 102 cases this year.There has been 14.6 per cent rise in the number of respiratory problems this Diwali compared to last year,“ they said.