Watching over womb: Haryana reverse tracks to save its unborn daughters
Despite a measly monthly stipend of ₹6,100, Sahelis are successfully powering Haryana’s drive to save its unborn daughters, particularly in the hinterland. Haryana has 20,653 ASHA, and 2,500 anganwadi workers for nearly 7,000 villages, colonies and urban areas.
A resident of Kiloi village was more than 12 weeks pregnant. On July 22, she called up her assigned Saheli in distress, saying she was being rushed to PGIMS, Rohtak. Her Saheli alerted her seniors. Upon arrival at the hospital, the woman was gently questioned. In a moment of vulnerability, she admitted to having consumed abortion pills. Her pregnancy had already been terminated. Further questioning of her husband revealed he had bought a medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kit. A case was registered against the chemist who sold the kit and her husband. Both were arrested.
A Jind-based employee of the state women and child development department is one of the 824 women under the scanner for sex-selective abortions performed after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The woman, already a mother of two daughters, was 15 weeks pregnant when she underwent the abortion on July 1 after she illegally went for sex determination on June 12. Her Saheli was the first to raise the red flag.
Every year, more than five lakh births are registered in Haryana and Sahelis are playing a significant role in spearheading the Haryana health department’s reverse tracking initiative to check the slide in sex ratio at birth. Sahelis are anganwadi workers and ASHA (accredited social health activists) tasked with “watching over the womb” to trace abortions being performed by mothers with one or more daughters.
Despite a measly monthly stipend of ₹6,100, Sahelis are successfully powering Haryana’s drive to save its unborn daughters, particularly in the hinterland. Haryana has 20,653 ASHA, and 2,500 anganwadi workers for nearly 7,000 villages, colonies and urban areas.
{{/usCountry}}Despite a measly monthly stipend of ₹6,100, Sahelis are successfully powering Haryana’s drive to save its unborn daughters, particularly in the hinterland. Haryana has 20,653 ASHA, and 2,500 anganwadi workers for nearly 7,000 villages, colonies and urban areas.
{{/usCountry}}“Pregnant women, who already have one or more daughters, have been assigned a Saheli whose primary task is to counsel and keep a watch over the expectant mother,” says director, health services, Dr Virender Yadav.
{{/usCountry}}“Pregnant women, who already have one or more daughters, have been assigned a Saheli whose primary task is to counsel and keep a watch over the expectant mother,” says director, health services, Dr Virender Yadav.
{{/usCountry}}The initiative comes after Haryana, the pioneering state of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign that became the flagship programme to save the girl child when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched it as a nationwide movement from Panipat on January 22, 2015, suffered a setback in 2024 as the state’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) slipped to 910 females births per 1,000 males. This was a dip of six points from 2023’s 916. Prodded by the Centre, Haryana went for reverse tracking to arrest the slide. Through reverse tracking, the state health authorities are tracing abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy by when the gender of the foetus can be determined.
{{/usCountry}}The initiative comes after Haryana, the pioneering state of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign that became the flagship programme to save the girl child when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched it as a nationwide movement from Panipat on January 22, 2015, suffered a setback in 2024 as the state’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) slipped to 910 females births per 1,000 males. This was a dip of six points from 2023’s 916. Prodded by the Centre, Haryana went for reverse tracking to arrest the slide. Through reverse tracking, the state health authorities are tracing abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy by when the gender of the foetus can be determined.
{{/usCountry}}Veena, a Saheli in Naraingarh town of Ambala district, says: “It’s our duty to prevent an illegal abortion. We stay in touch with the assigned pregnant woman regularly and track her movement through local sources.”
Another Jind-based Saheli, Rajbala, says women who already have a girl child don’t disclose their pregnancy easily. “We work hard to win their confidence. I have reported six abortions in recent months. In each case, lack of heart beat was said to be the trigger.”
“In view of these painstaking efforts at the grassroots, I’m optimistic about Haryana bouncing back and registering an encouraging improvement in its annual sex ratio at birth by December,” says Dr GL Singal, an expert associated with the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme since its inception.
Tracking abortions after 12 weeks
According to medical experts, abortions after 12 weeks are medically uncommon unless there is a serious risk. Hence, they are red flags for possible sex-selective abortions.
A July 21 letter addressed to district civil surgeon by the Kurukshetra deputy commissioner (DC) Neha Singh shed light on how women with two or more girl children are undergoing abortions repeatedly. The communication says that between January 1 and June 30, as many as 131 women with over 12 weeks pregnancy underwent abortions. Forty-eight of the 131 women already have a girl child and they underwent abortions at unregistered MTP centres. “In a majority of cases, the reason for abortion was given as foot slipped, bleeding at home, and after that D and C (dilation and curettage). This is a very serious matter,” the DC’s letter read.
During the district task force meeting on July 16, it emerged that women with two or more girls are undergoing abortions repeatedly.
“This is a horrific trend. Killing a girl child in the womb is one of the worst crimes. It’s worse than the rarest of the rare crimes that warrant capital punishment. Let a daughter live...she in reality carries forward the legacy of the clan,” says Dr Manju Gupta, a registered private practitioner based in Gharaunda.
According to Manmohan Taneja, who superannuated as state drug controller on July 31, more than 9,000 MTP kits were seized and 50 FIRs were registered, including 18 against online sellers of the MTP kits, between February and June. “I hope the crackdown on the kits will now yield the desired results,” he said.
Reverse tracking, the new weapon
The reverse tracking of abortion cases is a first of its kind drive Haryana has launched to generate evidence and expose illegal terminations masked behind medical pretexts.
Officials say when Haryana launched the “watching the womb” drive in February, more than 88,000 pregnant women were registered between January and April on the reproductive child health (RCH) portal. “The RCH is a unique identity and mandatory for antenatal care (ANC) during pregnancy. Due to the extraordinary situation, we decided to use RCH data to monitor vulnerable pregnant women,” an official said.
At one point, there were 33,229 pregnant women with one or more girl children, while by July-end the number of such women shrank to 20,723. At present, 20,721 Sahelis are attached with these women.
Dr Yadav says it was after the Sahelis were assigned that the reverse tracking of abortions was implemented.
According to the data, 1,249 abortions were performed when pregnancy was below 12 weeks and 1,153 abortions were done after 12 weeks of pregnancy in the past few months. A majority of the women cited bleeding, slipping, falling down stairs, or spontaneous bleeding as reasons for abortions.
“We are investing our resources on women in 10 to 20 weeks of pregnancy, who already have a daughter, as they are vulnerable to family pressures,” he says.
In July, reverse tracking in 786 out of identified 824 cases of abortion above 12 weeks was completed with Faridabad reporting the highest number of 96 abortions followed by Ambala with 77, Karnal with 69, Sonepat with 65, and Rohtak with 49 cases.
While 23 FIRs for illegal abortions have been registered, more are in the pipeline. Show-cause notices have also gone out to 38 private clinics and hospitals suspected of flouting abortion laws and a police probe is underway in 41 cases. Notices have been issued to nearly 200 frontline health workers, including seven medical officers, five senior medical officers, over 100 Sahelis, and 34 ASHA workers for dereliction of duty.
Notices are being issued for failing to ensure antenatal care (ANC) registration within the mandatory 10 weeks of pregnancy. In Karnal, more than 200 such notices have been issued.
