Mumbai: The Union ministry of well being and household welfare on Tuesday despatched notices to YouTubers who had uploaded movies on prenatal sex-determination, ordering them to take away these inside 36 hours. The roughly 4,000 URLs listed by the ministry instruct viewers on decide the intercourse of a foetus by taking a look at numerous being pregnant studies.

Prenatal sex-determination is banned in India underneath the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act), and diagnostic centres are stringently regulated underneath it. The Act was legislated with a view to stopping feminine foeticide and arresting the declining intercourse ratio in India.

Confirming the event, undersecretary P V Mohandas stated that the ministry monitored social media routinely for objectionable content material. “When these videos were brought to our notice, we identified and enlisted the offending channels first,” he stated. “On Tuesday, we sent them notices to remove the content, also informing them that this was a punishable offence.”

Mohandas added that Google had additionally been requested to take away the content material from its web site. “Any person who comes across content violating the PCPNDT Act can report it to the nodal authorities in their own state or to the ministry on the email address pndtmohfw@gmail.com,” he stated.

The sex-determination movies on YouTube have been first flagged on Twitter by Dr Anuj Aggarwal, a Delhi-based radiologist a number of days in the past. Dr Aggarwal was scrolling by way of YouTube searching for movies on radiology when he found a video uploaded by a person who claimed to be a part of the nursing employees at AIIMS hospital. The channel was full of movies on being pregnant, being pregnant ideas and methods on prenatal sex-determination.

“Initially I thought these were videos uploaded by YouTubers from other countries but shockingly, they were from India,” stated Dr Aggarwal. “I was surprised to see that the video I chanced upon had 0.7 million views. The law on prenatal sex determination is very stringent, and there should be strict monitoring on this issue. All videos, including the ones uploaded by users outside of India, should be banned for viewing in India.”

When HT reporters visited YouTube and keyed in particular key phrases, there have been 1000’s of such movies uploaded by Indians. These channels have been owned by ‘Mommy vlogggers’, Lifestyle vloggers, well being vloggers and nursing employees at hospitals. Some YouTubers additionally claimed that they have been medical doctors, educating individuals on being pregnant.

Dr Hrishikesh Pai, president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), stated, “The law of our country even bans advertising of sex-determination services. I am surprised to know that this information is freely available on social media.”

Pai defined that within the final ten years, it was the stringent implementation of the PCPNDT Act that had helped India obtain a greater intercourse ratio. “All ultrasound machines have to be registered, and doctors have to be very thorough in keeping records of every scan taken,” he stated. “Any discrepancy in the records can land a medical professional in serious trouble. A similar rigour needs to be applied to social media, and videos of this kind must be immediately taken off public platforms.”