AHMEDABAD: She was forced to go for abortion not once but six times by her in-laws as they were obsessed for a male heir. Today she has used RTI to rescue several women who go through this ordeal many times in their lives. Amisha Bhatt, 36, from Vastrapur has exposed errant sonography clinics, how despite laws like Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and measures to prevent sex determination tests doctors have been maintaining a secret list of patients who are being sent by in-laws for abortions. This list is never revealed to the state government. In her RTI Bhatt has exposed this practice in clinics located in Anand, Anand, Vadodara and Panchmahals.
Bhatt had already filed a police case against her husband and in-laws for harassment. But in order to expose this practice Bhatt filed RTI applications with the health officers of two districts seeking details about her abortion case and other such cases. The explosive information exposed a nefarious nexus between gynecologists and sonography clinics involved in illegal abortion and sex determination tests. Bhatt found that her name did not figure in the elaborate list of patients who had undergone sonography tests.
"This meant that the government had no information on the tests conducted on me, as mandated under the PCPNDT Act. There may have been many such women like me. The doctors were maintaining a secret list of patients on which sex determination tests were being conducted," says Bhatt.
Due to Bhatt's expose, licences of two doctors' were cancelled for malpractice and the state government reviewed the requirements for doctors to submit their monthly reports.
Bhatt married Priyavadan Bhatt, a resident of Anand, in the year 2000. Between 2001 and 2009, she was subjected to six abortions. She even gave birth to Kamya, a girl child. Bhatt was sent to clinics in Anand, Vadodara and Godhra.
Rajendra Shukla of Yogkshem Manav Sansthan, a city-based organization, who helped Bhatt, says, "The records revealed an ugly truth. Bhatt's name was not mentioned in the monthly reports sent to the health officers. We proved the abortion and sonography with help of the bills of the doctors. The form 'F' for sonography did not have signature of Bhatt, a prerequisite. We submitted the proofs to the health officials and blew lid off the scam," said Shukla.Link: Forced into abortion 6 times, woman turns whistleblower
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