पान:Bitter Sugarcane.pdf/22

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thrown near river shore, some of them were thrown in dustbins! But there were no shreds of evidence of sex-determination tests, therefore the doctor wasn't arrested under the PCPNDT act, the doctors were arrested under the MTP ( Medical termination of pregnancy). According to this act, a patient can undergo abortion until the 12th week of her pregnancy, because the sex of the baby appears after 14 weeks. In some cases, if there is a danger to the mother's life the period of abortion can be extended to 20 weeks as well but for that advice and signature of 2 doctors is essential. In this case, the foetuses were clearly more than 14 weeks. It was clear that the foetuses we found were female foetuses. The people who were caught by the police were - later found out to be - connected with Dr. Munde. The case was registered against him but it couldn't stand in the court. Against these female foetuses' murders, we decided to march at Parali's Tehsil office, we formed a blockade around Tehsil officer, who ironically was a woman. We were fighting on all possible fronts, and with literally everybody, the government- who didn't have a women's commission for the state, the society- which did not want females, and the doctors who were hell-bent on killing female foetuses for pity profits. To tackle this, I along with retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice Sujata Manohar started our own parallel institution “State women people's commission' to give voice to our demands. Justice Sujata was the President and I was the functional leader. On 3rd January 2011, on the eve of Savitribai i Phule's birth anniversary, at Mumbai's press council we announced the functioning of our 'State Women People's Commission' in the presence of honourable lawyer Indira Jaysingh. The present chief minister Ashok Chavan gave us 40 minutes with the corresponding government officials including the health director of the state, chief secretary and the directors of major NGOs across Maharashtra. The meeting which was supposed to run for 40 minutes actually went for 2 hours!