Health Ministry's pet project to track illegal sex determination tests in the state is expensive, not very effective and not tamper-proof, says draft report of the committee, which is in MiD DAY's possession

Even as a court case is raging between the state government and certain radiologists over a technology that tracks pregnancies through sonography machines, MiD DAY has learnt that not all government officials themselves are convinced about this tracking mechanism. The technology, known as Silent Observer, which has been developed by a Pune-based company and was used in Kolhapur district for the first time as a pilot project, is embedded in a sonography machine. The machine then feeds data such as name, address and the history of childbirth of every pregnant woman along with radio images of the ultrasound to the main server installed at the district collector's office.


This is not it: The document advises against installing theu00a0 machines as
the technology has too many drawbacks. Represention pic

Many states have implemented this technology after Kolhapur and officials in Maharashtra have been contemplating implementing it uniformly across the state. Dr Suresh Gupta, additional director, State Family Welfare Bureau, said a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Dr Prakash Doke, executive director of Maharashtra State Health Systems Resource Centre, to assess the feasibility of doing so. "The committee has submitted its reports to the health secretary. I don't know the exact contents but they said the project isn't very feasible," said Gupta.