On January 24, the Information, Education and Communication (IES) department, as a part of its initiatives, staged the street play which ‘educates’ to save the unborn girl child from being aborted after its sex determination using the sonography machine. It will be performed in all 24 wards of the city over the next six months.

Addressing a press conference, Executive Health Officer Dr Jairaj Thanekar said that the IES department has been performing street plays to educate masses since 1995. “We have used the medium for HIV-AIDS and Polio, and now thought of using it for prevention of sex detection also,” he said.

Over the last few months the civic body has seized 60 machines from sonography clinics used for detecting the sex of the unborn child.

The street play is being performed by 12 civic employees from the IES department and the script has been prepared after taking information from health officials over the last one month. “Earlier, we have had positive response from tribals in the adivasi padas who were unaware of the polio dose for their children. With this street play we are hopeful of bringing a change in people - stop sex detection and accept the child whether male or female,” said script writer Nagesh Chavan.

The play shows a king who wants to enjoy the pleasures of life but then realises the harsh reality of introducing the sonography machine which results in the declining population of the girl child, and the awakening prompted by his minister who brings him face to face with the ill-effects of sex determination used by people.

The 18-minute play practically touches all points of people's mentality on sex determination, favouring a male child and disliking the girl child. “Mothers will understand the play from the perspective of their unborn child. The sonography machines were made for a larger good to detect any abnormalities through ultrasonic images, however, it is used for detection of sex of the child which is completely wrong and illegal. We should stop this,” Chavan said.