NCPCR directed MP Government to prepare Report on Genitoplasty on Children less than 5 years

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) directed the Madhya Pradesh State government to undertake an investigation with a team of doctors and submit detailed report on doctors/hospitals practising genitoplasty and action taken or contemplated against them. NCPCR also demanded to know the measures taken by the Madhya Pradesh government at the State/district and local level in terms of publicity/awareness campaign against the adverse effects of sex change operations as well as female foeticide and infanticide. The state government was questioned as to why measures to create awareness against preference for a male child have proved ineffective.

The State government was asked to take all necessary action to combat the unethical practice, including cancellation of the licence and registration of doctors and hospitals involved. The government is to initiate penal action against them under IPC and other applicable laws/guidelines.

The investigation was ordered and directions issued to Madhya Pradesh state government in the backdrop of hundreds of such operations on baby girls in Indore. Genitoplasty is performed on children who are just 5 years old. The procedure costs about Rs. 1.5 lakh. It was reported that It has also been reported that about seven paediatric surgeons, associated with top private and government hospitals were related with performing these surgeries.

Baby girls are being converted into boys in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) by the hundreds every year - at ages where they cannot give their consent for this life-changing operation. The high cost of marrying off a girl in the greedy dowry market is deemed to be the reason why most couples dread getting a baby girl. There have been cases of divorce if a woman delivers a girl child. Baby girls are abandoned in dustbins and at times, killed at birth, without the mother’s consent.
The low cost of surgery and the relatively easy and unobtrusive way of getting it done in this city attracts parents from Delhi and Mumbai to get their child surgically corrected. According to the doctors, about 7-8% cases come from the metros.

Genitoplasty which is used to correct genital abnormality in fully-grown patients, is allegedly being misused rampantly to promise parents a male child even though they have a female child. Medico-legal experts pointed out that with no proper laws to protect rights of the child that young, the practice might have a larger social ramification.