The state health department has decided to appoint a private agency to map various public and private diagnostic centres and hospitals across the state to keep tab on the facilities as new technologies for sex determination test are now available.

Senior health officials of the state government on Monday announced the decision during a workshop on Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique (PC PNDT) Act being held in Santiniketan with health officials of four Bengal districts—Birbhum, Hooghly, East and West Burdwan.

Health officials said the state government had decided on the move after the Union health and family welfare ministry sent a list of newly introduced techniques for sex determination including PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The RT-PCR machine, which is used to detect Covid-19, is a variant of PCR and has an added step of reverse transcription of RNA (ribonucleic acid) to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). This reverse transcription of RNA to DNA can be used to determine the sex of a foetus.

“Several new techniques are now available to determine sex of foetus. If these techniques are used, it might increase the rate of abortion of girl child. The agency will map diagnostic centres that have techniques to detect the sex of a foetus and we will bring those units under PC and PNDC Acts. These centres will also be under regular vigil of the health department,” said a senior health department officer present at the workshop.

“As machines can determine the DNA of a foetus, the RT-PCR machines can be used to detect sex. There are around 120 RT-PCR machines in Bengal that were introduced to test Covid cases. We will bring those under our radar,” he added.

Officials said several private sector hospitals and diagnostic centres had bought RT-PCR machines. The officials said it was necessary to keep a vigil on these machines once the pandemic ended.

Additional director or health services and state nodal officer of PC PNDT Act in Bengal, Kajal Mondal, and joint secretary (law), health department, Subhankar Sen were among senior officials who conducted the workshop.

At the workshop, the officials said the districts did not report incidents of MTP (medical termination of pregnancies) in private sectors during the Covid period.

“We know the officials in districts were very busy to combat the pandemic but it is very alarming that most of the districts did not report MTPs in private hospitals. Such slackness will increase the rate of abortion,” said another official.