Advocate Varsha Deshpande has been actively and courageously striving for judicious implementation of Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 2002. Undeterred by threats to her life and attempts to buy her over by medical mafia, she has built a sustained campaign against doctors providing illegal service of pre natal sex selection to identify sex of foetus resulting into discriminatory abortion of female fetuses. She is a crusader for empowerment of girls and for promotion of women’s rights, bodily integrity and dignity. To sustain activities for ‘Save the Girl Child Campaign’, she founded ‘Lek Laadki Abhiyaan (LLA)’, an organisation which began clamping down on sex determination tests since 2005.
Under Adv Deshpande, LLA has conducted 34 sting operations on erring sonography centres across Maharashtra, including one in Mumbai during 2005-2013. These operations revealed many shocking facts. Doctors carrying out sex determination tests were using code language and symbols to divulge the gender of the baby to their clients who had strong son-preference and daughter aversion.
LLA has exposed multiple methods used by medical mafia to advertise their services, promote business of femicide and mint money.
It was also revealed that majority of the sonography reports were now emailed. “If the woman is carrying a girl child, the doctor emails an image of a Barbie doll. If it is a boy, there will be a picture of a male doll,” says Deshpande who has made a note of several other codes doctors use to reveal the gender of the baby. Among them, Monday for girl and Friday for boy, the number 16 for one boy, 19 for a girl and 29 for twin girls are just some other kinds of codes. She has also invited attention to the fact that results of sex selection are shared mostly on emails, and are fuelling a business worth Rs. 1,500 crore. This is particularly worrying for a state like Maharashtra which loses 4.5 lakh girls every 10 years, 50,000 every year and 148 every day. As per 2011 census, the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) for 0-6 age group of our country has been lowest in last 110 years, 914 girls for 1000 boys. Maharashtra has an alarmingly low CSR i.e. 880 girls for 1000 boys in 2011 census. Advocate Varsha’s single minded action has given the clear message that daughters are not for slaughter.
She has also maintained meticulous documentation on startling facts about the thriving sex determination racket. LLA has forced the state government to put in place Management Information System (MIS) to track use/abuse of ultra sound/ sonography machines used for pregnant women. The ‘Kolhapur model’ tracker of sex selection with the help of scientific device is unique.
“The clients in such cases are welleducated, financially sound couples with access to technology. Just like designer saris, women now demand designer babies,” observed Deshpande who is also a member of the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee for PCPNDT Act. It was due to a petition filed by her about alleged use of sex selection of baby through assisted reproduction, Government had to order probe into sex test complaint against a super star of Hindi film industry. After the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape, LLA launched a state-wide campaign ‘Ek Sahi Stritvacha Sanmanasathi’ (one signature for the respect of women). ‘Lek- Ladki Abhiyaan’ has a musical troupe from Satara that performs plays, songs, street theatre for public education to convey that women’s rights are human rights, Eliminate Inequality not women, Destroy dowry not daughters.