The BJP today sought tougher laws to deal with pre-natal sex detection tests and female foeticide, which it said was no less a crime than murder.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh also demanded that loopholes in abortion-related laws be also plugged in order to check their misuse for killing unborn female children."It's appalling to see a high incidence of female foeticide in a country where goddesses are worshipped. Such an act is the greatest of all sins," he told his party's Mahila Morcha rally here.
The BJP leader said both men and women were equally responsible for proliferation of female foeticide in the country.
"Parents who kill their unborn babies because of their gender and doctors who assist them in such acts should be treated as murderers. There should be tougher laws against both pre-natal sex detection and female foeticide," Singh, who also underscored the need for a social campaign against the practice, remarked.
In her address, party leader Sushma Swaraj spoke critically about the tradition that allows a son to light the funeral pyre of his dead father.
"I have made a departure from it and given this right to my daughter," Swaraj said.
Also, she spoke at length about tricks used by doctors to covertly announce the sex of unborn babies to their parents.
Swaraj, accompanied by Mahila Morcha leaders later submitted a memorandum addressed to President A P J Abdul Kalam, expressing their concerns over female foeticide and seeking tougher laws to check the practice.
Source:PTI News
